UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


ROLF  HOFFMANN 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 

AT 
LOS  ANGELES 


• 


THE 


OCEAN  OF  THEOSOPHY 


BY 


WILLIAM    Q.  JUDGE 


TENTH    THOUSAND 


NEW  YORK 

THEOSOPHICAL   PUBLISHING    COMPANY 
144  MADISON  AVENUE 

LONDON 

THEOSOPHICAL   BOOK   COMPANY 
77  GREAT  PORTLAND   STREET 

1898 


152437 


The  Aryan  Press. 


COPYRIGHT.  1893, 
BY    WILLIAM    Q.    JUDGE. 

ALL  RIGHTS   RESERVED. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I. 

THEOSOPHY  AND  THE  MASTERS. 

Theosophy  generally  defined.  The  existence  of  highly  devel- 
oped men  in  the  Universe.  These  men  are  the  Mahatmas, 
Initiates,  Brothers,  Adepts.  How  they  work  and  why  they 
remain  now  concealed.  Their  Lodge.  They  are  perfected 
men  from  other  periods  of  evolution.  They  have  had  various 
names  in  history.  Apollonius,  Moses,  Solomon,  and  others 
were  members  of  this  fraternity.  They  had  one  single  doctrine. 
They  are  possible  because  man  may  at  last  be  as  they  are. 
They  keep  the  true  doctrine  and  cause  it  to  reappear  at  the 
right  time.  Pages  i  to  13. 

CHAPTER  II. 

GENERAL  PRINCIPLES. 

A  view  of  the  general  laws  governing  the  Cosmos.     The 
| ;  sevenfold  division  in  the  system.     Real  Matter  not  visible  and 
"^  this  always  known  to  the  Lodge.     Mind  the  intelligent  portion 
-  of  the  Cosmos.     In  the  universal  Mind  the  sevenfold  plan  of 
the  Cosmos  is  contained.     Evolution  proceeds  upon  the  plan 
in  the  universal  Mind.     Periods  of  Evolution  come  to  an  end ; 
this  is  the  Night  of  Brahma.    The  Mosaic  account  of  cosmogen- 
esis  has  dwarfed  modern  conceptions.     The  Jews  had  merely 
one  part  of  the  doctrine  taken  from  the  ancient  Egyptians. 
'  The  doctrine  accords  with  the  inner  meaning  of  Genesis.    The 
general  length  of  periods  of  Evolution.      Same  doctrine  as 
14  Herbert  Spencer's.     The  old  Hindu  chronology  gives  the  de- 
tails.    The  story  of  Solomon's  Temple  is  that  of  the  evolution 
of  man.     The  doctrine  far  older  than  the  Christian  one.     The 
real  age  of  the  world.     Man  is  over  18,000,000  years  old.    Evo- 
lution is  accomplished  solely  by  the  Egos  within  that  at  last 
become  the  users  of  human  form*.     Each  of  the  seven  princi- 
ples of  man  is  derived  from  one  of  the  seven  great  divisions  of 
the  Universe.  Pages  14  to  22. 

CHAPTER  III. 
THE  EARTH  CHAIN. 

The  doctrine  respecting  the  Earth.  It  is  sevenfold  also.  It 
is  one  of  a  chain  of  seven  corresponding  to  man.  The  whole 
seven  are  not  in  a  chain  separated  as  to  members,  but  they 
interpenetrate  each  other.  The  Earth  chain  is  the  reincarna- 
tion of  a  former  old  and  now  dead  chain.  This  old  chain  was 
one  of  which  our  moon  is  the  visible  representative.  Moon  . 
now  dead  and  contracting.  Venus,  Mars,  etc.,  are  living 
members  of  other  similar  chains  to  ours.  A  mass  of  Egos  for 


IV  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHV. 

each  chain.  The  number,  though  incalculable,  is  definite. 
Their  course  of  evolution  through  the  seven  globes.  In  each 
a  certain  part  of  our  nature  is  developed.  At  the  fourth  globe 
the  process  of  condensation  is  begun  and  reaches  its  limit. 

Pages  23  to  28. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

SEPTENARY  CONSTITUTION  OF  MAN. 

The  constitution  of  man. ,  How  the  doctine  differs  from  the 
ordinary  Christian  one.  The  real  doctrine  known  in  the  first 
centuries  of  this  era,  but  purposely  withdrawn  from  a  nation 
not  able  to  bear  it.  The  danger  if  the  doctrine  had  not  been 
withdrawn.  The  sevenfold  division.  The  principles  classified. 
The  divisions  agree  with  the  chain  of  seven  globes.  The  low- 
er man  is  a  composite  being.  His  higher  trinity.  The  lower 
four  principles  transitory  and  perishable.  Death  leaves  the 
trinity  as  the  only  persistent  part  of  us.  What  the  physical 
man  is,  and  what  the  other  unseen  mortal  man  is.  A  second 
physical  man  not  seen  but  still  mortal.  The  senses  pertain  to 
the  unseen  man  and  not  to  the  visible  one.  Pages  29  to  34. 

CHAPTER  V. 
BODY  AND  ASTRAL  BODY. 

The  body  and  life  principle.  The  mystery  of  life.  Sleep 
and  death  are  due  to  excess  of  life  not  bearable  by  the  organ- 
ism. The  body  an  illusion.  What  is  the  cell.  Life  is  uni- 
versal. It  is  not  the  result  of  the  organism.  The  Astral  Body. 
What  it  is  made  of.  Its  powers  and  functions.  As  a  model 
for  the  body.  It  is  possessed  by  all  kingdoms  of  nature.  Its 
power  to  travel.  The  real  sense  organs  are  in  the  astral  body. 
The  place  the  astral  body  has  at  spiritualistic  stances.  The 
astral  body  accounts  for  telepathy,  clairvoyance,  clairaudience, 
and  all  such  psychical  phenomena.  Pages  35  to  44. 

CHAPTER  VI, 

KAMA— DESIRE. 

The  fourth  principle.  Kama  Rupa.  In  English,  the  Pas- 
sions and  Desires.  Kama  Rupa  is  not  produced  by  the  body 
but  is  the  cause  for  body.  This  is  the  balance  principle  of  the 
seven.  It  is  the  basis  of  action  and  mover  of  the  will.  Right 
desire  leads  to  right  act.  This  principle  has  a  higher  and  a 
lower  aspect.  The  principle  is  in  the  astral  body.  At  death 
it  coalesces  with  the  astral  body  and  makes  of  it  a  shell  of  the 
man.  It  has  powers  of  its  own  of  an  automatic  nature.  This 
shell  is  the  so-called  "spirit"  of  stances.  It  is  a  danger  to  the 
race.  Elementals  help  this  shell  at  stances.  No  soul  or  con- 
science present.  Suicides  and  executed  criminals  leave  very 
coherent  shells.  The  principle  of  desire  is  common  to  all  the 


CONTENTS.  V 

organized  kingdoms.     It  is  the  brute  part  of  man.     Man  is 

now  a  fully  developed  quarternary  with  the  higher  principles 

partially  developed.  Pages  45  to  51. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

MANAS. 

Manas  the  fifth  principle.  The  first  of  the  real  man.  This 
is  the  thinking  principle  and  is  not  the  product  of  brain.  Brain 
is  only  its  instrument.  How  the  light  of  mind  was  given  to 
mindless  men.  Perfected  men  from  older  systems  gave  it  to 
us  as  they  got  it  from  their  predecessors.  Manas  is  the  store- 
house of  all  thoughts.  Manas  is  the  seer.  If  the  connection 
between  Manas  and  brain  is  broken  the  person  is  not  able  to 
cognize.  The  organs  of  the  body  cognize  nothing.  Manas  is 
divided  into  upper  and  lower.  Its  four  peculiarities.  Buddha, 
Jesus,  and  others  had  Manas  fully  developed.  Atma  the  Divine 
Ego.  The  permanent  individuality.  This  permanent  individ- 
uality has  been  through  every  sort  of  experience  in  many  bod- 
ies. Manas  and  matter  have  now  a  greater  facility  of  action 
than  in  former  times.  Manas  is  bound  by  desire,  and  this 
makes  reincarnation  a  necessity.  Pages  52  to  59. 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
OP  REINCARNATION. 

Why  is  man  as  he  is,  and  how  did  he  come.  What  the  Uni- 
verse is  for.  Spiritual  and  physical  evolution  demand  reincar- 
nation. Reincarnation  on  the  physical  plane  is  reembodiment 
or  alteration  of  form.  The  whole  mass  of  matter  of  the  globe 
will  one  day  be  men  in  a  period  far  distant.  The  doctrine  an- 
cient. Held  by  the  early  Christians.  Taught  by  Jesus.  What 
reincarnates.  Life's  mysteries  arise  from  incomplete  incarna- 
tion of  the  higher  principles.  It  is  not  transmigration  to  lower 
forms.  Explanation  of  Manu  on  this.  Pages  60  to  69, 

CHAPTER  IX. 
REINCARNATION  CONTINUED. 

Objections  urged.  Desire  cannot  alter  law.  Early  arrivals 
in  heaven.  Must  they  wait  for  us.  Recognition  of  the  soul  not 
dependent  on  objectivity.  Heredity  not  an  objection.  What 
heredity  does.  Divergences  in  heredity  not  recognized.  His- 
tory goes  against  heredity.  Reincarnation  not  unjust.  What 
is  justice.  We  do  not  suffer  for  another's  but  for  our  own 
deeds.  Memory.  Why  we  do  not  remember  other  lives.  Who 
does?  How  to  account  for  increase  of  population. 

Pages  70  to  78. 
CHAPTER  X. 

ARGUMENTS  SUPPORTING  REINCARNATION. 
From  the  nature  of  the  soul.     From  the  laws  of  mind  and 
soul.     From  differences  in  character.     From  the  necessity  for 


Vi  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

discipline  and  evolution.  From  differences  of  capacity  and 
start  in  life  at  the  cradle.  Individual  identity  proves  it.  The 
probable  object  of  life  makes  it  necessary.  One  life  not  enough 
to  carry  out  Nature's  purposes.  Mere  death  confers  no  ad- 
vance. A  school  after  death  is  illogical.  The  persistence  of 
savagery  and  the  decay  of  nations  give  support  to  it.  The  ap- 
pearance of  geniuses  is  due  to  reincarnation.  Inherent  ideas 
common  to  man  show  it.  Opposition  to  the  doctrine  based 
solely  on  prejudice.  Pages  79  to  88. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

KARMA. 

Definition  of  the  word.  An  unfamiliar  term.  A  beneficent 
law.  How  present  life  is  affected  by  past  acts  of  other  lives. 
Each  act  has  a  thought  at  its  root.  Through  Manas  they  re- 
act on  each  personal  life.  Why  people  are  born  deformed  or 
in  bad  circumstances.  The  three  classes  of  Karma  and  its 
three  fields  of  operation.  National  and  Racial  Karma.  Indi- 
vidual un-happiness  and  happiness.  The  Master's  words  on 
Karma.  Pages  89  to  98. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

KAMA  LOKA. 

The  first  state  after  death.  Where  and  wnat  are  heaven  and 
hell?  Death  of  the  body  only  the  first  step  of  death.  A  sec- 
ond death  after  that.  Separation  of  the  seven  principles  into 
three  classes.  What  is  Kama  Loka  ?  Origin  of  Christian  pur- 
gatory. It  is  an  astral  sphere  with  numerous  degrees.  The 
Skandhas.  The  astral  shell  of  man  in  Kama  Loka.  It  is  de- 
void of  soul,  mind,  and  conscience.  It  is  the  "spirit"  of  the 
stance  rooms.  Classification  of  shells  in  Kama  Loka.  Black 
magicians  there.  Fate  of  suicides  and  others.  Pre-devachanic 
unconsciousness.  Pages  99  to  108. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
DEVACHAN. 

The  meaning  of  the  term.  A  state  of  Attna-Buddhi-Manas. 
Operation  of  Karma  on  Devachan.  The  necessity  for  Deva- 
chan.  It  is  another  sort  of  thinking  with  no  physical  body  to 
clog  it.  Only  two  fields  for  operation  of  causes — subjective 
and  objective.  Devachan  is  one.  No  time  there  for  the  soul. 
Length  of  stay  therein.  Mathematics  of  the  soul.  Average 
stay  therein  is  1 500  mortal  years.  Depends  on  psychic  impulses 
of  life.  Its  use  and  purpose.  On  the  last  thoughts  at  death 
the  devachanic  state  is  fashioned.  Devachan  not  meaningless. 
Do  we  see  those  left  behind?  We  bring  their  images  before 
us.  Entities  in  Devachan  have  a  power  to  help  those  they 
love.  Mediums  cannot  go  to  those  in  Devachan  except  in  rare 
cases  and  when  the  person  is  pure.  Adepts  only  can  help 
those  in  Devachan.  Pages  109  to  116 


CONTENTS.  Vii 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
CYCLES. 

One  of  the  most  important  doctrines.  Corresponding  words 
in  the  Sanskrit.  Few  cycles  known  to  the  West,  They  cause 
the  reappearance  of  former  living  personages.  They  affect  life 
and  evolution.  When  did  the  first  moment  come.  The  first 
rate  of  vibration  determines  the  subsequent  ones.  When  man 
leaves  the  globe  the  forces  die.  Convulsions  and  cataclysms. 
Reincarnation  and  karma  intermixed  with  cyclic  law.  Civili- 
zations cycle  back.  The  cycle  of  Avatars.  Krishna,  Buddha, 
and  others  come  under  cycles.  Minor  personages  and  great 
leaders.  Intersection  of  cycles  causes  convulsions.  The  Moon, 
Sun,  and  Sidereal  cycles.  Individual  cycles  and  that  of  re- 
incarnation. The  motion  through  the  constellations,  and  the 
meaning  of  the  story  of  Jonah.  The  Zodiacal  clock.  How  the 
ideas  are  impressed  and  preserved  by  nations.  Cause  for  earth- 
quakes, Cosmic  Fire,  Glaciation,  and  Floods.  The  Brahman- 
ical  Cycles.  Pages  117  to  126. 

CHAPTER  XV. 

DIFFERENTIATION  OF  SPECIES— MISSING  LINKS. 

Ultimate  origin  of  man  not  discoverable.  Man  not  derived 
from  a  single  pair,  nor  from  the  animals.  Seven  races  of  men 
appeared  simultaneously  on  the  globe.  They  are  now  amal- 
gamated and  will  differentiate.  The  Anthropoid  Apes.  Their 
origin.  They  came  from  man.  They  are  the  descendants  of 
offspring  from  unnatural  union  in  the  third  and  fourth  rounds. 
The  Delayed  Races.  The  secret  books  on  the  question.  Hu- 
man features  of  apes  accounted  for.  The  lower  kingdoms  from 
other  planets.  Their  differentiation  by  intelligent  interference 
by  the  Dhyanis.  The  midway  point  of  evolution.  Astral  forms 
of  old  rounds  solidified  in  physical  rounds.  Missing  links, 
what  they  are  and  why  Science  cannot  discover  them.  The 
aim  of  Nature  in  all  this  work.  Pages  127  to  134. 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
PSYCHIC  LAWS,  FORCES,  AND  PHENOMENA. 

No  true  psychology  in  the  West.  It  exists  in  the  Orient. 
Man  the  mirror  of  all  forces.  Gravitation  only  a  half  law. 
Importance  of  polarity  and  cohesion.  Rendering  objects  in- 
visible. Imagination  all  powerful.  Mental  telegraphy.  Read- 
ing minds  is  burglary.  Apportation,  clairvoyance,  clairaud- 
ience,  and  second-sight.  Pictures  in  the  Astral  Light.  Dreams 
and  visions.  Apparitions.  Real  clairvoyance.  Inner  stim- 
ulus makes  outer  impression.  Astral  Light  the  Register  of 
everything.  Pages  135  to  146. 


THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
PSYCHIC  PHENOMENA  AND  SPIRITUALISM. 

Spiritualism  wrongly  named.  Should  be  called  necromancy 
and  the  worship  of  the  dead.  This  cult  did  not  originate  in  Am- 
erica. The  practice  long  known  in  India.  The  facts  recorded 
deserve  examination.  Theosophists  admit  the  facts  but  inter- 
pret them  differently  from  the  "spiritualist".  The  examina- 
tion confined  to  the  question  of  whether  the  dead  return.  The 
dead  do  not  return  thus.  The  mass  of  communications  are 
from  the  astral  shell  of  man.  Objections  stated  to  the  claims 
made  by  mediums.  The  record  justifies  the  ridicule  of  science. 
Materialization  and  what  it  is.  A  mass  of  electric  magnetic 
matter  with  a  picture  upon  it.  from  the  astral  light.  Or  it  is 
the  astral  body  of  the  medium  extruded  from  the  living  body. 
Analysis  of  the  laws  to  be  known  before  the  phenomena  can 
be  understood.  The  timbre  of  the  "independent  voice".  Im- 
portance of  the  astral  realm.  The  Dangers  of  mediumship. 
Attempt  to  get  these  powers  for  money  or  selfish  ends  also 
dangerous.  Cyclic  law  ordains  the  slackening  of  the  force  at 
this  time.  The  purpose  of  the  Lodge.  Pages  147  to  154. 


PREFACE. 

N  attempt  is  made  in  the  pages  of  this  book 
to  write  of  Theosophy  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  be  understood  by  the  ordinary  reader. 
Bold  statements  are  made  in  it  upon  the 
knowledge  of  the  writer,  but  at  the  same  time  it  is 
distinctly  to  be  understood  that  he  alone  is  responsi- 
ble for  what  is  therein  written:  the  Theosophical 
Society  is  not  involved  in  nor  bound  by  anything 
said  in  the  book,  nor  are  any  of  its  members  any  the 
less  good  Theosophists  because  they  may  not  accept 
what  he  has  set  down.  The  tone  of  settled  convic- 
tion which  may  be  thought  to  pervade  the  chapters 
is  not  the  result  of  dogmatism  or  conceit,  but  flows 
from  knowledge  based  upon  evidence  and  experience. 
Members  of  the  Theosophical  Society  will  notice 
that  certain  theories  or  doctrines  have  not  been  gone 
into.  That  is  because  they  could  not  be  treated 
without  unduly  extending  the  book  and  arousing 
needless  controversy. 

The  subject  of  the  Will  has  received  no  treatment, 
inasmuch  as  that  power  or  faculty  is  hidden,  subtle, 
undiscoverable  as  to  essence,  and  only  visible  in 
effect.  As  it  is  absolutely  colorless  and  varies  in 
moral  quality  in  accordance  with  the  desire  behind 
it,  as  also  it  acts  frequently  without  our  knowledge, 
and  as  it  operates  in  all  the  kingdoms  below  man, 
there  could  be  nothing  gained  by  attempting  to  en- 
quire into  it  apart  from  the  Spirit  and  the  desire. 

No  originality  is  claimed  for  this  book.  The  writ- 
er invented  none  of  it,  discovered  none  of  it,  but  has 
simply  written  that  which  he  has  been  taught  and 
which  has  been  proved  to  him.  It  therefore  is  only  a 
handing  on  of  what  has  been  known  before. 

WILLIAM  Q.  JUDGE. 
New  York,  October, 


THE  OCEAN  OF  THEOSOPHY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HEOSOPHY  is  that  ocean  of  knowledge  which 
spreads  from  shore  to  shore  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  sentient  beings;  unfathomable  in 
its  deepest  parts,  it  gives  the  greatest 
minds  their  fullest  scope,  yet,  shallow  enough  at 
its  shores,  it  will  not  overwhelm  the  understanding 
of  a  child.  It  is  wisdom  about  God  for  those  who 
believe  that  he  is  all  things  and  in  all,  and  wisdom 
about  nature  for  the  man  who  accepts  the  statement 
found  in  the  Christian  Bible  that  God  cannot  be 
measured  or  discovered,  and  that  darkness  is  around 
his  pavilion.  Although  it  contains  by  derivation  the 
name  God  and  thus  may  seem  at  first  sight  to  em- 
brace religion  alone,  it  does  not  neglect  science,  for 
it  is  the  science  of  sciences  and  therefore  has  been 
called  the  wisdom  religion.  For  no  science  is  com- 
plete which  leaves  out  any  department  of  nature, 
whether  visible  or  invisible,  and  that  religion  which, 
depending  solely  on  an  assumed  revelation,  turns 
away  from  things  and  the  laws  which  govern  them 
is  nothing  but  a  delusion,  a  foe  to  progress,  an  ob- 
stacle in  the  way  of  man's  advancement  toward  hap- 
piness. Embracing  both  the  scientific  and  the  reli- 
gious, Theosophy  is  a  scientific  religion  and  a  reli- 
gious science. 

It  is  not  a  belief  or  dogma  formulated  or  invented 
by  man,  but  is  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  which  gov- 
ern the  evolution  of  the  physical,  astral,  psychical, 
and  intellectual  constituents  of  nature  and  of  man. 
The  religion  of  the  day  is  but  a  series  of  dogmas 
man-made  and  with  no  scientific  foundation  for  pro- 


a  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

mulgated  ethics ;  while  our  science  as  yet  ignores  the 
unseen,  and  failing  to  admit  the  existence  of  a  com- 
plete set  of  inner  faculties  of  perception  in  man,  it 
is  cut  off  from  the  immense  and  real  field  of  expe- 
rience which  lies  within  the  visible  and  tangible 
worlds.  But  Theosophy  knows  that  the  whole  is 
constituted  of  the  visible  and  the  invisible,  and  per- 
ceiving outer  things  and  objects  to  be  but  transitory 
it  grasps  the  facts  of  nature,  both  without  and  with- 
in. It  is  therefore  complete  in  itself  and  sees  no 
unsolvable  mystery  anywhere;  it  throws  the  word 
coincidence  out  of  its  vocabulary  and  hails  the  reign 
of  law  in  everything  and  every  circumstance. 

That  man  possesses  an  immortal  soul  is  the  com- 
mon belief  of  humanity ;  to  this  Theosophy  adds  that 
he  is  a  soul ;  and  further  that  all  nature  is  sentient, 
that  the  vast  array  of  objects  and  men  are  not  mere 
collections  of  atoms  fortuitously  thrown  together  and 
thus  without  law  evolving  law,  but  down  to  the 
smallest  atom  all  is  soul  and  spirit  ever  evolving  un- 
der the  rule  of  law  which  is  inherent  in  the  whole. 
And  just  as  the  ancients  taught,  so  does  Theosophy; 
that  the  course  of  evolution  is  the  drama  of  the  soul 
and  that  nature  exists  for  no  other  purpose  than  the 
soul's  experience.  The  Theosophist  agrees  with 
Prof.  Huxley  in  the  assertion  that  there  must  be  be- 
ings in  the  universe  whose  intelligence  is  as  much 
beyond  ours  as  ours  exceeds  that  of  the  black  beetle, 
and  who  take  an  active  part  in  the  government  of 
the  natural  order  of  things.  Pushing  further  on  by 
the  light  of  the  confidence  had  in  his  teachers,  the 
Theosophist  adds-  that  such  intelligences  were  once 
human  and  came  like  all  of  us  from  other  and  pre- 
vious worlds,  where  as  varied  experience  had  been 
gained  as  is  possible  on  this  one.  We  are  therefore 
not  appearing  for  the  first  time  when  we  come  upon 
this  planet,  but  have  pursued  a  long,  an  immeasur- 
able course  of  activity  and  intelligent  perception  on 
other  systems  of  globes,  some  of  which  were  de- 


ELDER   BROTHERS   AND   INITIATES.  3 

stroyed  ages  before  the  solar  system  condensed. 
This  immense  reach  of  the  evolutionary  system 
means,  then,  that  this  planet  on  which  we  now  are 
is  the  result  of  the  activity  and  the  evolution  of  some 
other  one  that  died  long  ago,  leaving  its  energy  to 
be  used  in  the  bringing  into  existence  of  the  earth, 
and  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  latter  in  their  turn 
came  from  some  older  world  to  proceed  here  with 
the  destined  work  in  matter.  And  the  brighter 
planets,  such  as  Venus,  are  the  habitation  of  still 
more  progressed  entities,  once  as  low  as  ourselves, 
but  now  raised  up  to  a  pitch  of  glory  incomprehen- 
sible for  our  intellects. 

The  most  intelligent  being  in  the  universe,  man, 
has  never,  then,  been  without  a  friend,  but  has  a 
line  of  elder  brothers  who  continually  watch  over 
the  progress  of  the  less  progressed,  preserve  the 
knowledge  gained  through  aeons  of  trial  and  experi- 
ence, and  continually  seek  for  opportunities  of  draw- 
ing the  developing  intelligence  of  the  race  on  this 
or  other  globes  to  consider  the  great  truths  concern- 
ing the  destiny  of  the  soul.  These  elder  brothers 
also  keep  the  knowledge  they  have  gained  of  the 
laws  of  nature  in  all  departments,  and  are  ready 
when  cyclic  law  permits  to  use  it  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind.  They  have  always  existed  as  a  body,  all 
knowing  each  other,  no  matter  in  what  part  of  the 
world  they  may  be,  and  all  working  for  the  race  in 
many  different  ways.  In  some  periods  they  are  well 
known  to  the  people  and  move  among  ordinary  men 
whenever  the  social  organization,  the  virtue,  and  the 
development  of  the  nations  permit  it.  For  if  they 
were  to  come  out  openly  and  be  heard  of  everywhere, 
they  would  be  worshipped  as  gods  by  some  and 
hunted  as  devils  by  others.  In  those  periods  when 
they  do  come  out  some  of  their  number  are  rulers 
of  men,  some  teachers,  a  few  great  philosophers, 
while  others  remain  still  unknown  except  to  the 
most  advanced  of  the  body. 


4  THE  OCEAN  OF  THEOSOPHY. 

It  would  be  subversive  of  the  ends  they  have  in 
view  were  they  to  make  themselves  public  in  the 
present  civilization,  which  is  based  almost  wholly  on 
money,  fame,  glory,  and  personality.  For  this  age, 
as  one  of  them  has  already  said,  "is  an  age  of 
transition  ",  when  every  system  of  thought,  science, 
religion,  government,  and  society  is  changing,  and 
men's  minds  are  only  preparing  for  an  alteration 
into  that  state  which  will  permit  the  race  to  advance 
to  the  point  suitable  for  these  elder  brothers  to  intro- 
duce their  actual  presence  to  our  sight.  They  may 
be  truly  called  the  bearers  of  the  torch  of  truth 
across  the  ages ;  they  investigate  all  things  and  be- 
ings ;  they  know  what  man  is  in  his  innermost  nature 
and  what  his  powers  and  destiny,  his  state  before 
birth  and  the  states  into  which  he  goes  after  the 
death  of  his  body ;  they  have  stood  by  the  cradle  of 
nations  and  seen  the  vast  achievements  of  the  an- 
cients, watched  sadly  the  decay  of  those  who  had  no 
power  to  resist  the  cyclic  law  of  rise  and  fall ;  and 
while  cataclysms  seemed  to  show  a  universal  de- 
struction of  art,  architecture,  religion,  and  philos- 
ophy, they  have  preserved  the  records  of  it  all  in 
places  secure  from  the  ravages  of  either  men  or 
time ;  they  have  made  minute  observations,  through 
trained  psychics  among  their  own  order,  into  the 
unseen  realms  of  nature  and  of  mind,  recorded  the 
observations  and  preserved  the  record;  they  have 
mastered  the  mysteries  of  sound  and  color  through 
which  alone  the  elemental  beings  behind  the  veil  of 
matter  can  be  communicated  with,  and  thus  can  tell 
why  the  rain  falls  and  what  it  falls  for,  whether  the 
earth  is  hollow  or  not,  what  makes  the  wind  to  blow 
and  light  to  shine,  and  greater  feat  than  all — one 
which  implies  a  knowledge  of  the  very  foundations 
of  nature — they  know  what  the  ultimate  divisions  of 
time  are  and  what  are  the  meaning  and  the  times  of 
the  cycles. 

But,  asks  the  busy  man  of  the  nineteenth  century 


INITIATES   MAKING    HISTORY.  5 

who  reads  the  newspapers  and  believes  in  "modern 
progress,"  if  these  elder  brothers  are  all  you  claim 
them  to  be,  why  have  they  left  no  mark  on  history 
nor  gathered  men  around  them?  Their  own  reply, 
published  some  time  ago  by  Mr.  A.  P.  Sinnett,  is 
better  than  any  I  could  write. 

"We  will  first  discuss,  if  you  please,  the  one  re- 
lating to  the  presumed  failure  of  the  '  Fraternity ' 
to  leave  any  mark  upon  the  history  of  the  world. 
They  ought,  you  think,  to  have  been  able,  with 
their  extraordinary  advantages,  to  have  gathered 
into  their  schools  a  considerable  portion  of  the  more 
enlightened  minds  of  every  race.  How  do  you  know 
they  have  made  no  such  mark?  Are  you  acquainted 
with  their  efforts,  successes,  and  failures?  Have 
you  any  dock  upon  which  to  arraign  them?  How 
could  your  world  collect  proofs  of  the  doings  of  men 
who  have  sedulously  kept  closed  every  possible  door 
of  approach  by  which  the  inquisitive  could  spy  upon 
them?  The  precise  condition  of  their  success  was 
that  they  should  never  be  surprised  or  obstructed. 
What  they  have  done  they  know ;  all  that  those  out- 
side their  circle  could  perceive  was  the  results,  the 
causes  of  which  were  masked  from  view.  To  ac- 
count for  these  results,  many  have  in  different  ages 
invented  theories  of  the  interposition  of  gods,  special 
^providences,  fates,  the  benign  or  hostile  influences  of 
-  the  stars.  There  never  was  a  time  within  or  before 
the  so-called  historical  period  when  our  predecessors 
were  not  moulding  events  and  '  making  history ',  the 
facts  of  which  were  subsequently  and  invariably  dis- 
torted by  historians  to  suit  contemporary  prejudices. 
Are  you  quite  sure  that  the  visible  heroic  figures  in 
the  successive  dramas  were  not  often  but  their  pup- 
pets? We  never  pretended  to  be  able  to  draw  nations 
in  the  mass  to  this  or  that  crisis  in  spite  of  the  gen- 
eral drift  of  the  world's  cosmic  relations.  The  cycles 
must  run  their  rounds.  Periods  of  mental  and  moral 
light  and  darkness  succeed  each  other  as  day  does 


6  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

night.  The  major  and  minor  yugas  must  be  accom- 
plished according  to  the  established  order  of  things. 
And  we,  borne  along  the  mighty  tide,  can  only  mod- 
ify and  direct  some  of  its  minor  currents. " 

It  is  under  cyclic  law,  during  a  dark  period  in  the 
history  of  mind,  that  the  true  philosophy  disappears 
for  a  time,  but  the  same  law  causes  it  to  reappear 
as  surely  as  the  sun  rises  and  the  human  mind  is 
present  to  see  it.  But  some  works  can  only  be  per- 
formed by  the  Master,  while  other  works  require  the 
assistance  of  the  companions.  It  is  the  Master's 
work  to  preserve  the  true  philosophy,  but  the  help 
of  the  companions  is  needed  to  rediscover  and  pro- 
mulgate it.  Once  more  the  elder  brothers  have  indi- 
cated where  the  truth — Theosophy — could  be  found, 
and  the  companions  all  over  the  world  are  engaged 
in  bringing  it  forth  for  wider  currency  and  propaga- 
tion. 

The  Elder  Brothers  of  Humanity  are  men  who 
were  perfected  in  former  periods  of  evolution.  These 
periods  of  manifestation  are  unknown  ^to  modern 
evolutionists  so  far  as  their  number  are  concerned, 
though  long  ago  understood  by  not  only  the  older 
Hindus,  but  also  by  those  great  minds  and  men  who 
instituted  and  carried  on  the  first  pure  and  unde- 
based  form  of  the  Mysteries  of  Greece.  The  periods,  . 
when  out  of  the  Great  Unknown  there  come  forth* 
the  visible  universes,  are  eternal  in  their  coming  and** 
going,  alternating  with  equal  periods  of  silence  and 
rest  again  in  the  Unknown.  The  object  of  these 
mighty  waves  is  the  production  of  perfect  man,  the 
evolution  of  soul,  and  they  always  witness  the  in- 
crease of  the  number  of  Elder  Brothers ;  the  life  of 
the  least  of  men  pictures  them  in  day  and  night, 
waking  and  sleeping,  birth  and  death,  "for  these 
two,  light  and  dark,  day  and  night,  are  the  world's 
eternal  ways." 

In  every  age  and  complete  national  history  these 
men  of  power  and  compassion  are  given  different 


MAHATMAS   ARE    INITIATES.  7 

designations.  They  have  been  called  Initiates, 
Adepts,  Magi,  Hierophants,  Kings  of  the  East,  Wise 
Men,  Brothers,  and  what  not.  But  in  the  Sanscrit 
language  there  is  a  word  which,  being  applied  to 
them,  at  once  thoroughly  identifies  them  with  hu- 
manity. It  is  Mahatma.  This  is  composed  of  Maha 
great,  and  Atma  soul ;  so  it  means  great  soul,  and  as 
all  men  are  souls  the  distinction  of  the  Mahatma  lies 
in  greatness.  The  term  Mahatma  has  come  into  wide 
use  through  the  Theosophical  Society,  as  Mme.  H.  P. 
Blavatsky  constantly  referred  to  them  as  her  Masters 
who  gave  her  the  knowledge  she  possessed.  They 
were  at  first  known  only  as  the  Brothers,  but  after- 
wards, when  many  Hindus  flocked  to  the  Theosophi- 
cal movement,  the  name  Mahatma  was  brought  into 
use,  inasmuch  as  it  has  behind  it  an  immense  body 
of  Indian  tradition  and  literature.  At  different  times 
unscrupulous  enemies  of  the  Theosophical  Society 
have  said  that  even  this  name  had  been  invented 
and  that  such  beings  are  not  known  of  among  the 
Indians  or  in  their  literature.  But  these  assertions 
are  made  only  to  discredit  if  possible  a  philosophical 
movement  that  threatens  to  completely  upset  prevail- 
ing erroneous  theological  dogmas.  For  all  through 
Hindu  literature  Mahatmas  are  often  spoken  of,  and 
in  parts  of  the  north  of  that  country  the  term  is 
common.  In  the  very  old  poem  the  Bhagavad-Gitd, 
revered  by  all  Hindu  sects  and  admitted  by  the  west- 
ern critics  to  be  noble  as  well  as  beautiful,  there  is  a 
verse  reading,  "Such  a  Mahatma  is  difficult  to  find." 
But  irrespective  of  all  disputes  as  to  specific  names, 
there  is  sufficient  argument  and  proof  to  show  that  a 
body  of  men  having  the  wonderful  knowledge  de- 
scribed above  has  always  existed  and  probably  exists 
to-day.  The  older  mysteries  continually  refer  to 
them.  Ancient  Egypt  had  them  in  her  great  king- 
Initiates,  sons  of  the  sun  and  friends  of  great  gods. 
There  is  a  habit  of  belittling  the  ideas  of  the  ancients 
which  is  in  itself  belittling  to  the  people  of  to-day. 


8  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

Even  the  Christian  who  reverently  speaks  of  Abra- 
ham as  "the  friend  of  God,"  will  scornfully  laugh  at 
the  idea  of  the  claims  of  Egyptian  rulers  to  the  same 
friendship  being  other  than  childish  assumption  of 
dignity  and  title.  But  the  truth  is,  these  great 
Egyptians  were  Initiates,  members  of  the  one  great 
lodge  which  includes  all  others  of  whatever  degree 
or  operation.  The  later  and  declining  Egyptians, 
of  course,  must  have  imitated  their  predecessors,  but 
that  was  when  the  true  doctrine  was  beginning  once 
more  to  be  obscured  upon  the  rise  of  dogma  and 
priesthood. 

The  story  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana  is  about  a  mem- 
ber of  one  of  the  same  ancient  orders  appearing 
among  men  at  a  descending  cycle,  and  only  for  the 
purpose  of  keeping  a  witness  upon  the  scene  for 
future  generations. 

Abraham  and  Moses  of  the  Jews  are  two  other 
Initiates,  Adepts  who  had  their  work  to  do  with  a 
certain  people;  and  in  the  history  of  Abraham  we 
meet  with  Melchizedek,  who  was  so  much  beyond 
Abraham  that  he  had  the  right  to  confer  upon  the 
latter  a  dignity,  a  privilege,  or  a  blessing.  The  same 
chapter  of  human  history  which  contains  the  names 
of  Moses  and  Abraham  is  illuminated  also  by  that 
of  Solomon.  And  thus  these  three  make  a  great 
Triad  of  Adepts,  the  record  of  whose  deeds  can  not 
be  brushed  aside  as  folly  and  devoid  of  basis. 

Moses  was  educated  by  the  Egyptians  and  in  Mid- 
ian,  from  both  of  which  he  gained  much  occult  knowl- 
edge, and  any  clear-seeing  student  of  the  great  Uni- 
versal Masonry  can  perceive  all  through  his  books  the 
hand,  the  plan,  and  the  work  of  a  master.  Abraham 
again  knew  all  the  arts  and  much  of  the  power  in 
psychical  realms  that  were  cultivated  in  his  day,  or 
else  he  could  not  have  consorted  with  kings  nor  have 
been  "the  friend  of  God;"  and  the  reference  to  his 
conversations  with  the  Almighty  in  respect  to  the 
destruction  of  cities  alone  shows  him  to  have  been  an 


SOLOMON    AND    MOSES   INITIATES.  9 

Adept  who  had  long  ago  passed  beyond  the  need  of 
ceremonial  or  other  adventitious  aids.  Solomon  com- 
pletes this  triad  and  stands  out  in  characters  of  fire. 
Around  him  is  clustered  such  a  mass  of  legend  and 
story  about  his  dealings  with  the  elemental  powers 
and  of  his  magic  possessions  that  one  must  condemn 
the  whole  ancient  world  as  a  collection  of  fools  who 
made  lies  for  amusement  if  a  denial  is  made  of  his 
being  a  great  character,  a  wonderful  example  of  the 
incarnation  among  men  of  a  powerful  Adept.  We  do 
not  have  to  accept  the  name  Solomon  nor  the  pre- 
tense that  he  reigned  over  the  Jews,  but  we  must 
admit  the  fact  that  somewhere  in  the  misty  time  to 
which  the  Jewish  records  refer  there  lived  and  moved 
among  the  people  of  the  earth  one  who  was  an  Adept 
and  given  that  name  afterwards.  Peripatetics  and 
microscopic  critics  may  affect  to  see  in  the  pre- 
valence of  universal  tradition  naught  but  evidence 
of  the  gullibility  of  men  and  their  power  to  imitate, 
but  the  true  student  of  human  nature  and  life  knows 
that  the  universal  tradition  is  true  and  arises  from 
the  facts  in  the  history  of  man. 

Turning  to  India,  so  long  forgotten  and  ignored  by 
the  lusty  and  egotistical,  the  fighting  and  the  trading 
West,  we  find  her  full  of  the  lore  relating  to  these 
wonderful  men  of  whom  Noah,  Abraham,  Moses,  and 
Solomon  are  only  examples.  There  the  people  are 
fitted  by  temperament  and  climate  to  be  the  pre- 
servers of  the  philosophical,  ethical,  and  psychical 
jewels  that  would  have  been  forever  lost  to  us  had 
they  been  left  to  the  ravages  of  such  Goths  and  Van- 
dals as  western  nations  were  in  the  early  days  of 
their  struggle  for  education  and  civilization.  If  the 
men  who  wantonly  burned  up  vast  masses  of  histori- 
cal and  ethnological  treasures  found  by  the  minions 
of  the  Catholic  rulers  of  Spain,  in  Central  and  South 
America,  could  have  known  of  and  put  their  hands 
upon  the  books  and  palm-leaf  records  of  India  before 
the  protecting  shield  of  England  was  raised  against 


IO  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

them,  they  would  have  destroyed  them  all  as  they 
did  for  the  Americans,  and  as  their  predecessors 
attempted  to  do  for  the  Alexandrian  library.  For- 
tunately events  worked  otherwise. 

All  along  the  stream  of  Indian  literature  we  can 
find  the  names  by  scores  of  great  adepts  who  were 
well  known  to  the  people  and  who  all  taught  the 
same  story — the  great  epic  of  the  human  soul.  Their 
names  are  unfamiliar  to  western  ears,  but  the  records 
of  their  thoughts,  their  work  and  powers  remain. 
Still  more,  in  the  quiet  unmoveable  East  there  are 
to-day  by  the  hundred  persons  who  know  of  their 
own  knowledge  that  the  Great  Lodge  still  exists  and 
has  its  Mahatmas,  Adepts,  Initiates,  Brothers.  And 
yet  further,  in  that  land  are  such  a  number  of  ex- 
perts in  the  practical  application  of  minor  though 
still  very  astonishing  power  over  nature  and  her 
forces,  that  we  have  an  irresistible  mass  of  human 
evidence  to  prove  the  proposition  laid  down. 

And  if  Theosophy — the  teaching  of  this  Great 
Lodge — is  as  said,  both  scientific  and  religious,  then 
from  the  ethical  side  we  have  still  more  proof.  A 
mighty  Triad  acting  on  and  through  ethics  is  that 
composed  of  Buddha,  Confucius,  and  Jesus.  The 
first,  a  Hindoo,  founds  a  religion  which  to-day  em- 
braces many  more  people  than  Christianity,  teaching 
centuries  before  Jesus  the  ethics  which  he  taught 
and  which  had  been  given  out  even  centuries  before 
Buddha.  Jesus  coming  to  reform  his  people  repeats 
these  ancient  ethics,  and  Confucius  does  the  same 
thing  for  ancient  and  honorable  China. 

The  Theosophist  says  that  all  these  great  names 
represent  members  of  the  one  single  brotherhood, 
who  all  have  a  single  doctrine.  And  the  extraordi- 
nary characters  who  now  and  again  appear  in  west- 
ern civilization,  such  as  St.  Germain,  Jacob  Boehme, 
Cagliostro,  Paracelsus,  Mesmer,  Count  St.  Martin, 
and  Madame  H.  P.  Blavatsky,  are  agents  for  the 
doing  of  the  work  of  the  Great  Lodge  at  the  proper 


MESSENGERS   CALLED   IMPOSTORS.  II 

time.  It  is  true  they  are  generally  reviled  and 
classed  as  impostors — though  no  one  can  find  out 
why  they  are  when  they  generally  confer  benefits 
and  lay  down  propositions  or  make  discoveries  of 
great  value  to  science  after  they  have  died.  But 
Jesus  himself  would  be  called  an  impostor  to-day  if 
he  appeared  in  some  Fifth  avenue  theatrical  church 
rebuking  the  professed  Christians.  Paracelsus  was 
the  originator  of  valuable  methods  and  treatments 
in  medicine  now  universally  used.  Mesmer  taught 
hypnotism  under  another  name.  Madame  Blavatsky 
brought  once  more  to  the  attention  of  the  West  the 
most  important  system,  long  known  to  the  Lodge, 
respecting  man,  his  nature  and  destiny.  But  all  are 
alike  called  impostors  by  a  people  who  have  no  ori- 
ginal philosophy  of  their  own  and  whose  mendicant 
and  criminal  classes  exceed  in  misery  and  in  number 
those  of  any  civilization  on  the  earth. 

It  will  not  be  unusual  for  nearly  all  occidental 
readers  to  wonder  how  men  could  possibly  know  so 
much  and  have  such  power  over  the  operations  of 
natural  law  as  I  have  ascribed  to  the  Initiates,  now 
so  commonly  spoken  of  as  the  Mahatmas.  In  India, 
China,  and  other  Oriental  lands  no  wonder  would 
arise  on  these  heads,  because  there,  although  every- 
thing of  a  material  civilization  is  just  now  in  a  back- 
ward state,  they  have  never  lost  a  belief  in  the  inner 
nature  of  man  and  in  the  power  he  may  exercise  if  he 
will.  Consequently  living  examples  of  such  powers 
and  capacities  have  not  been  absent  from  those  peo- 
ple. But  in  the  West  a  materialistic  civilization  hav- 
ing arisen  through  a  denial  of  the  soul  life  and  nature 
consequent  upon  a  reaction  from  illogical  dogmat- 
ism, there  has  not  been  any  investigation  of  these 
subjects  and,  until  lately,  the  general  public  has  not 
believed  in  the  possibility  of  anyone  save  a  supposed 
God  having  such  power. 

A  Mahatma  endowed  with  power  over  space,  time, 
mind,  and  matter,  is  a  possibility  just  because  he  is 


12  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

a  perfected  man.  Every  human  being  has  the  germ 
of  all  the  powers  attributed  to  these  great  Initiates, 
the  difference  lying  solely  in  the  f act  that  we  have  in 
general  not  developed  what  we  possess  the  germ  of, 
while  the  Mahatma  has  gone  through  the  training 
and  experience  which  have  caused  all  the  unseen 
human  powers  to  develop  in  him,  and  conferred  gifts 
that  look  god-like  to  his  struggling  brother  below. 
Telepathy,  mind-reading,  and  hypnotism,  all  long 
ago  known  to  Theosophy,  show  the  existence  in  the 
human  sub j  eel;  of  planes  of  consciousness,  functions, 
and  faculties  hitherto  undreamed  of.  Mind-reading 
and  the  influencing  of  the  mind  of  the  hypnotized 
subject  at  a  distance  prove  the  existence  of  a  mind 
which  is  not  wholly  dependent  upon  a  brain,  and 
that  a  medium  exists  through  which  the  influencing 
thought  may  be  sent.  It  is  under  this  law  that  the 
Initiates  can  communicate  with  each  other  at  no 
matter  what  distance.  Its  rationale,  not  yet  admitted 
by  the  schools  of  the  hypnotizers,  is,  that  if  the  two 
minds  vibrate  or  change  into  the  same  state  they 
will  think  alike,  or,  in  other  words,  the  one  who  is  to 
hear  at  a  distance  receives  the  impression  sent  by 
the  other.  In  the  same  way  with  all  other  powers, 
no  matter  how  extraordinary.  They  are  all  natural, 
although  now  unusual,  just  as  great  musical  ability  is 
natural  though  not  usual  or  common.  If  an  Initiate 
can  make  a  solid  object  move  without  contact,  it  is 
because  he  understands  the  two  laws  of  attraction 
and  repulsion  of  which  "gravitation"  is  but  the 
name  for  one ;  if  he  is  able  to  precipitate  out  of  the 
viewless  air  the  carbon  which  we  know  is  in  it,  form- 
ing the  carbon  into  sentences  upon  the  paper,  it  is 
through  his  knowledge  of  the  occult  higher  chemis- 
try, and  the  use  of  a  trained  and  powerful  image 
making  faculty  which  every  man  possesses;  if  he 
reads  your  thoughts  with  ease,  that  results  from  the 
use  of  the  inner  and  only  real  powers  of  sight,  which 
require  no  retina  to  see  the  fine-pictured  web  which 


THE  TRUE  DOCTRINE  REAPPEARS.         13 

the  vibrating  brain  of  man  weaves  about  him.  All 
that  the  Mahatma  may  do  is  natural  to  the  perfected 
man ;  but  if  those  powers  are  not  at  once  revealed  to 
us  it  is  because  the  race  is  as  yet  selfish  altogether 
and  still  living  for  the  present  and  the  transitory. 

I  repeat  then,  that  though  the  true  doctrine  disap- 
pears for  a  time  from  among  men  it  is  bound  to  reap- 
pear, because  first,  it  is  impacted  in  the  imperishable 
center  of  man's  nature ;  and  secondly,  the  Lodge  for- 
ever preserves  it,  not  only  in  actual  objective  records, 
but  also  in  the  intelligent  and  fully  self-conscious 
men  who,  having  successfully  overpassed  the  many 
periods  of  evolution  which  preceded  the  one  we  are 
now  involved  in,  cannot  lose  the  precious  possessions 
they  have  acquired.  And  because  the  elder  brothers 
are  the  highest  product  of  evolution  through  whom 
alone,  in  cooperation  with  the  whole  human  family, 
the  further  regular  and  workmanlike  prosecution  of 
the  plans  of  the  Great  Architect  of  the  Universe  could 
be  carried  on,  I  have  thought  it  well  to  advert  to 
them  and  their  Universal  Lodge  before  going  to 
other  parts  of  the  subject. 


CHAPTER  II. 

HE  teachings  of  Theosophy  deal  for  the  pres- 
ent chiefly  with  our  earth,  although  its 
purview  extends  to  all  the  worlds,  since  no 
part  of  the  manifested  universe  is  outside 
the  single  body  of  laws  which  operate  upon  us.  Our 
globe  being  one  of  the  solar  system  is  certainly  con- 
nected with  Venus,  Jupiter,  and  other  planets,  but 
as  the  great  human  family  has  to  remain  with  its 
material  vehicle — the  earth — until  all  the  units  of 
the  race  which  are  ready  are  perfected,  the  evolu- 
tion of  that  family  is  of  greater  importance  to  the 
members  of  it.  Some  particulars  respecting  the 
other  planets  may  be  given  later  on.  First  let  us 
take  a  general  view  of  the  laws  governing  all. 

The  universe  evolves  from  the  unknown,  into 
which  no  man  or  mind,  however  high,  can  inquire, 
on  seven  planes  or  in  seven  ways  or  methods  in  all 
worlds,  and  this  sevenfold  differentiation  causes  all 
the  worlds  of  the  universe  and  the  beings  thereon 
to  have  a  septenary  constitution.  As  was  taught  of 
old,  the  little  worlds  and  the  great  are  copies  of  the 
whole,  and  the  minutest  insect  as  well  as  the  most 
highly  developed  being  are  replicas  in  little  or  in 
great  of  the  vast  inclusive  original.  Hence  sprang 
the  saying,  ' '  as  above  so  below  "  which  the  Hermetic 
philosophers  used. 

The  divisions  of  the  sevenfold  universe  may  be 
laid  down  roughly  as:  The  Absolute,  Spirit,  Mind, 
Matter,  Will,  Akasa  or  yEther,  and  Life.  In  place 
of  ' '  the  Absolute  "  we  can  use  the  word  Space.  For 
Space  is  that  which  ever  is,  and  in  which  all  mani- 
festation must  take  place.  The  term  Akasa,  taken 
from  the  Sanscrit,  is  used  in  place  of  JEiher,  because 


FIRST    DIFFERENTIATIONS.  1$ 

the  English  language  has  not  yet  evolved  a  word  to 
properly  designate  that  tenuous  state  of  matter  which 
is  now  sometimes  called  Ether  by  modern  scientists. 
As  to  the  Absolute  we  can  do  no  more  than  say  IT 
Is.  None  of  the  great  teachers  of  the  School  ascribe 
qualities  to  the  Absolute  although  all  the  qualities 
exist  in  It.  Our  knowledge  begins  with  differentia- 
tion, and  all  manifested  objects,  beings,  or  powers 
are  only  differentiations  of  the  Great  Unknown.  The 
most  that  can  be  said  is  that  the  Absolute  periodic- 
ally differentiates  itself,  and  periodically  withdraws 
the  differentiated  into  itself. 

The  first  differentiation — speaking  metaphysically 
as  to  time — is  Spirit,  with  which  appears  Matter  and 
Mind.  Akasa  is  produced  from  Matter  and  Spirit, 
Will  is  the  force  of  Spirit  in  action  and  Life  is  a 
resultant  of  the  action  of  Akasa,  moved  by  Spirit, 
upon  Matter. 

But  the  Matter  here  spoken  of  is  not  that  which  is 
vulgarly  known  as  such.  It  is  the  real  Matter  which 
is  always  invisible,  and  has  sometimes  been  called 
Primordial  Matter.  In  the  Brahmanical  system  it 
is  denominated  Mulaprikriti.  The  ancient  teaching 
always  held,  as  is  now  admitted  by  Science,  that  we 
see  or  perceive  only  the  phenomena  but  not  the  es- 
sential nature,  body  or  being  of  matter. 

Mind  is  the  intelligent  part  of  the  Cosmos,  and  in 
the  collection  of  seven  differentiations  above  roughly 
sketched,  Mind  is  that  in  which  the  plan  of  the  Cos- 
mos is  fixed  or  contained.  This  plan  is  brought  over 
from  a  prior  period  of  manifestation  which  added  to  its 
ever-increasing  perfectness,  and  no  limit  can  be  set  to 
its  evolutionary  possibilities  in  perfectness,  because 
there  was  never  any  beginning  to  the  periodical  man- 
ifestations of  the  Absolute,  there  never  will  be  any 
end,  but  forever  the  going  forth  and  withdrawing 
into  the  Unknown  will  go  on. 

Wherever  a  world  or  system  of  worlds  is  evolving 
there  the  plan  has  been  laid  down  in  universal  mind, 


16  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

the  original  force  comes  from  spirit,  the  basis  is  mat- 
ter— which  is  in  fact  invisible — Life  sustains  all  the 
forms  requiring  life,  and  Akasa  is  the  connecting  link 
between  matter  on  one  side  and  spirit-mind  on  the 
other. 

When  a  world  or  a  system  comes  to  the  end  of  cer- 
tain great  cycles  men  record  a  cataclysm  in  history 
or  tradition.  These  traditions  abound;  among  the 
Jews  in  their  flood;  with  the  Babylonians  in  theirs; 
in  Egyptian  papyri;  in  the  Hindu  cosmology;  and 
none  of  them  as  merely  confirmatory  of  the  little 
Jewish  tradition,  but  all  pointing  to  early  teaching 
and  dim  recollection  also  of  the  periodical  destruc- 
tions and  renovations.  The  Hebraic  story  is  but  a 
poor  fragment  torn  from  the  pavement  of  the  Tem- 
ple of  Truth.  Just  as  there  are  periodical  minor 
cataclysms  or  partial  destructions,  so,  the  doctrine 
holds,  there  is  the  universal  evolution  and  involution. 
Forever  the  Great  Breath  goes  forth  and  returns 
again.  As  it  proceeds  outwards,  objects,  worlds  and 
men  appear ;  as  it  recedes  all  disappear  into  the  ori- 
ginal source. 

This  is  the  waking  and  the  sleeping  of  the  Great 
Being ;  the  Day  and  the  Night  of  Brahma ;  the  pro- 
totype of  our  waking  days  and  sleeping  nights  as 
men,  of  our  disappearance  from  the  scene  at  the  end 
of  one  little  human  life,  and  our  return  again  to  take 
up  the  unfinished  work  in  another  life,  in  a  new  day. 

The  real  age  of  the  world  has  long  been  involved 
in  doubt  for  Western  investigators,  who  up  to  the 
present  have  shown  a  singular  unwillingness  to  take 
instruction  from  the  records  of  Oriental  people  much 
older  than  the  West.  Yet  with  the  Orientals  is  the 
truth  about  the  matter.  It  is  admitted  that  Egyptian 
civilization  flourished  many  centuries  ago,  and  as 
there  are  no  living  Egyptian  schools  of  ancient  learn- 
ing to  offend  modern  pride,  and  perhaps  because  the 
Jews  "came  out  of  Egypt "  to  fasten  the  Mosaic  mis- 
understood tradition  upon  modern  progress,  the  in- 


MOSAIC    TRADITION   INADEQUATE.  IJ 

scriptions  cut  in  rocks  and  written  on  papyri  obtain  a 
little  more  credit  to-day  than  the  living  thought  and 
record  of  the  Hindus.  For  the  latter  are  still  among 
us,  and  it  would  never  do  to  admit  that  a  poor  and 
conquered  race  possesses  knowledge  respecting  the 
age  of  man  and  his  world  which  the  western  flower 
of  culture,  war,  and  annexation  knows  nothing  of. 
Ever  since  the  ignorant  monks  and  theologians  of 
Asia  Minor  and  Europe  succeeded  in  imposing  the 
Mosaic  account  of  the  genesis  of  earth  and  man  upon 
the  coming  western  evolution,  the  most  learned  even 
of  our  scientific  men  have  stood  in  fear  of  the  years 
that  elapsed  since  Adam,  or  have  been  warped  in 
thought  and  perception  whenever  their  eyes  turned 
to  any  chronology  different  from  that  of  a  few  tribes 
of  the  sons  of  Jacob.  Even  the  noble,  aged,  and 
silent  pyramid  of  Gizeh,  guarded  by  Sphinx  and 
Memnon  made  of  stone,  has  been  degraded  by  Piazzi 
Smyth  and  others  into  a  proof  that  the  British  inch 
must  prevail  and  that  a  "Continental  Sunday"  con- 
troverts the  law  of  the  Most  High.  Yet  in  the 
Mosaic  account,  where  one  would  expect  to  find  a 
reference  to  such  a  proof  as  the  pyramid,  we  can  dis- 
cover not  a  single  hint  of  it  and  only  a  record  of  the 
building  by  King  Solomon  of  a  temple  of  which  there 
never  was  a  trace. 

But  the  Theosophist  knows  why  the  Hebraic  tra- 
dition came  to  be  thus  an  apparent  drag  on  the  mind 
of  the  West ;  he  knows  the  connection  between  Jew 
and  Egyptian;  what  is  and  is  to  be  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  old  pyramid  builders  of  the  Nile  valley, 
and  where  the  plans  of  those  ancient  master  masons 
have  been  hidden  from  the  profane  eyes  until  the 
cycle  should  roll  round  again  for  their  bringing  forth. 
The  Jews  preserved  merely  a  part  of  the  learning  of 
Egypt  hidden  under  the  letter  of  the  books  of  Moses, 
and  it  is  there  still  to  this  day  in  what  they  call  the 
cabalistic  or  hidden  meaning  of  the  scriptures.  But 
the  Egyptian  souls  who  helped  in  planning  the  pyra- 


1 8  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

mid  of  Gizeh,  who  took  part  in  the  Egyptian  govern- 
ment, theology,  science,  and  civilization,  departed 
from  their  old  race,  that  race  died  out  and  the  former 
Egyptians  took  up  their  work  in  the  oncoming  races 
of  the  West,  especially  in  those  which  are  now  re- 
peopling  the  American  continents.  When  Egypt  and 
India  were  younger  there  was  a  constant  intercourse 
between  them.  They  both,  in  the  opinion  of  the 
Theosophist,  thought  alike,  but  fate  ruled  that  of  the 
two  the  Hindus  only  should  preserve  the  old  ideas 
among  a  living  people.  I  will  therefore  take  from 
the  Brahmanical  records  of  Hindustan  their  do6lrine 
about  the  days,  nights,  years  and  life  of  Brahma, 
who  represents  the  universe  and  the  worlds. 

The  doctrine  at  once  upsets  the  interpretation  so 
long  given  to  the  Mosaic  tradition,  but  fully  accords 
with  the  evident  account  in  Genesis  of  other  and 
former  "creations",  with  the  cabalistic  construction 
of  the  Old  Testament  verse  about  the  kings  of  Edom, 
who  there  represent  former  periods  of  evolution  prior 
to  that  started  with  Adam,  and  also  coincides  with  the 
belief  held  by  some  of  the  early  Christian  Fathers 
who  told  their  brethren  about  wonderful  previous 
worlds  and  creations. 

The  Day  of  Brahma  is  said  to  last  one  thousand 
years,  and  his  night  is  of  equal  length.  In  the 
Christian  Bible  is  a  verse  saying  that  one  day  is  as 
a  thousand  years  to  the  Lord  and  a  thousand  years 
as  one  day.  This  has  generally  been  used  to  mag- 
nify the  power  of  Jehovah,  but  it  has  a  suspicious 
resemblence  to  the  older  doctrine  of  the  length  of 
Brahma's  day  and  night.  It  would  be  of  more  value 
if  construed  to  be  a  statement  of  the  periodical  com- 
ing forth  for  great  days  and  nights  of  equal  length 
of  the  universe  of  manifested  worlds. 

A  day  of  mortals  is  reckoned  by  the  sun,  and  is 
but  twelve  hours  in  length.  On  Mercury  it  would 
be  different,  and  on  Saturn  or  Uranus  still  more  so. 
But  a  day  of  Brahma  is  made  up  of  what  are  called 


DAY    AND    NIGHT    OF    BRAHMA.  19 

Manvantaras — or  period  between  two  men — fourteen 
in  number.  These  include  four  billion  three  hun- 
dred and  twenty  million  mortal,  or  earth,  years, 
which  is  one  day  of  Brahma. 

When  this  day  opens,  cosmic  evolution,  so  far  as 
relates  to  this  solar  system,  begins  and  occupies  be- 
tween one  and  two  billions  of  years  in  evolving  the 
very  ethereal  first  matter  before  the  astral  kingdoms 
of  mineral,  vegetable,  animal  and  men  are  possible. 
This  second  step  takes  some  three  hundred  millions 
of  years,  and  then  still  more  material  processes  go 
forward  for  the  production  of  the  tangible  kingdoms 
of  nature,  including  man.  This  covers  over  one  and 
one-half  billions  of  years.  And  the  number  of  solar 
years  included  in  the  present  "human"  period  is 
over  eighteen  millions  of  years. 

This  is  exactly  what  Herbert  Spencer  designates  as 
the  gradual  coming  forth  of  the  known  and  hetero- 
geneous from  the  unknown  and  homogeneous.  For 
the  ancient  Egyptian  and  Hindu  Theosophists  never 
admitted  a  creation  out  of  nothing,  but  ever  strenu- 
ously insisted  upon  evolution,  by  gradual  stages,  of 
the  heterogeneous  and  differentiated  from  the  homo- 
geneous and  undifferentiated.  No  mind  can  com- 
prehend the  infinite  and  absolute  unknown,  which  is 
has  no  beginning  and  shall  have  no  end ;  which  is 
both  last  and  first,  because,  whether  differentiated 
or  withdrawn  into  itself,  it  ever  is.  This  is  the  God 
spoken  of  in  the  Christian  Bible  as  the  one  around 
whose  pavilion  there  is  darkness. 

This  cosmic  and  human  chronology  of  the  Hindus 
is  laughed  at  by  western  Orientalists,  yet  they  can 
furnish  nothing  better  and  are  continually  disagree- 
ing with  each  other  on  the  same  subject.  In  Wil- 
son's translation  of  Vishnu  Purana  he  calls  it  all  fiction 
based  on  nothing,  and  childish  boasting.  But  the 
Free  Masons,  who  remain  inactive  hereupon,  ought 
to  know  better.  The}'-  could  find  in  the  story  of  the 
building  of  Solomon's  temple  from  the  heterogeneous 


2O  *    THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

materials  brought  from  everywhere,  and  its  erection 
without  the  noise  of  a  tool  being  heard,  the  agree- 
ment with  these  ideas  of  their  Egyptian  and  Hindu 
brothers.  For  Solomon's  Temple  means  man  whose 
frame  is  built  up,  finished  and  decorated  without  the 
least  noise.  But  the  materials  had  to  be  found, 
gathered  together  and  fashioned  in  other  and  distant 
places.  These  are  in  the  periods  above  spoken  of, 
very  distant  and  very  silent.  Man  could  not  have 
his  bodily  temple  to  live  in  until  all  the  matter  in 
and  about  his  world  had  been  found  by  the  Master, 
who  is  the  inner  man,  when  found  the  plans  for 
working  it  required  to  be  detailed.  They  then  had 
to  be  carried  out  in  different  detail  until  all  the  parts 
should  be  perfectly  ready  and  fit  for  placing  in  the 
final  structure.  So  in  the  vast  stretch  of  time  which 
began  after  the  first  almost  intangible  matter  had 
been  gathered  and  kneaded,  the  material  and  vege- 
table kingdoms  had  sole  possession  here  with  the 
Master — man — who  was  hidden  from  sight  within 
carrying  forward  the  plans  for  the  foundations  of 
the  human  temple.  All  of  this  requires  many,  many 
ages,  since  we  know  that  nature  never  leaps.  And 
when  the  rough  work  was  completed,  when  the  hu- 
man temple  was  erected,  many  more  ages  would  be 
required  for  all  the  servants,  the  priests,  and  the 
counsellors  to  learn  their  parts  properly  so  that  man, 
the  Master,  might  be  able  to  use  the  temple  for  its 
best  and  highest  purposes. 

The  ancient  doctrine  is  far  nobler  than  the  Chris- 
tian religious  one  or  that  of  the  purely  scientific 
school.  The  religious  gives  a  theory  which  conflicts 
with  reason  and  fact,  while  science  can  give  for  the 
facts  which  it  observes  no  reason  which  is  in  any 
way  noble  or  elevating.  Theosophy  alone,  inclusive 
of  all  systems  and  every  experience,  gives  the  key, 
the  plan,  the  doctrine,  the  truth. 

The  real  age  of  the  world  is  asserted  by  Theosophy 
to  be  almost  incalculable,  and  that  of  man  as  he  is 


THE    REAL    AGE   OF    MAN.  21 

now  formed  is  over  eighteen  millions  of  years.  What 
has  become  at  last  man  is  of  vastly  greater  age,  for 
before  the  present  two  sexes  appeared  the  human 
creature  was  sometimes  of  one  shape  and  sometimes 
of  another,  until  the  whole  plan  had  been  fully 
worked  out  into  our  present  form,  function,  and 
capacity.  This  is  found  to  be  referred  to  in  the 
ancient  books  written  for  the  profane  where  man  is 
said  to  have  been  at  one  time  globular  in  shape. 
This  was  at  a  time  when  the  conditions  favored  such 
a  form  and  of  course  it  was  longer  ago  than  eighteen 
millions  of  years.  And  when  this  globular  form  was 
the  rule  the  sexes  as  we  know  them  had  not  differ- 
entiated and  hence  there  was  but  one  sex,  or  if  you 
like,  no  sex  at  all. 

During  all  these  ages  before  our  man  came  into 
being,  evolution  was  carrying  on  the  work  of  per- 
fecting various  powers  which  are  now  our  possession, 
This  was  accomplished  by  the  Ego  or  real  man  going 
through  experience  in  countless  conditions  of  matter 
all  different  one  from  the  other,  and  the  same  plan 
in  general  was  and  is  pursued  as  prevails  in  respect 
to  the  general  evolution  of  the  universe  to  which  I 
have  before  adverted.  That  is,  details  were  first 
worked  out  in  spheres  of  being  very  ethereal,  meta- 
physical in  fact.  Then  the  next  step  brought  the 
same  details  to  be  worked  out  on  a  plane  of  matter  a 
little  more  dense,  until  at  last  it  could  be  done  on 
our  present  plane  of  what  we  miscall  gross  matter. 
In  these  anterior  states  the  senses  existed  in  germ, 
as  it  were,  or  in  idea,  until  the  astral  plane  which  is 
next  to  this  one  was  arrived  at,  and  then  they  were 
concentrated  so  as  to  be  the  actual  senses  we  now 
use  through  the  agency  of  the  different  outer  organs. 
These  outer  organs  of  sight,  touch  and  hearing,  and 
tasting,  are  often  mistaken  by  the  unlearned  or  the 
thoughtless  for  the  real  organs  and  senses,  but  he 
who  stops  to  think  must  see  that  the  senses  are  in- 
terior and  that  their  outer  organs  are  but  mediators 


22  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

between  the  visible  universe  and  the  real  perceiver 
within.  And  all  these  various  powers  and  potential- 
ities being  well  worked  out  in  this  slow  but  sure 
process,  at  last  man  is  put  upon  the  scene  a  seven- 
fold being  just  as  the  universe  and  earth  itself  are 
sevenfold.  Each  of  his  seven  principles  is  derived 
from  one  of  the  great  first  seven  divisions,  and  each 
relates  to  a  planet  or  scene  of  evolution,  and  to  a 
race  in  which  that  evolution  was  carried  out.  So 
the  first  sevenfold  differentiation  is  important  to  be 
borne  in  mind,  since  it  is  the  basis  of  all  that  follows ; 
just  as  the  universal  evolution  is  septenary  so  the 
evolution  of  humanity,  sevenfold  in  its  constitution, 
is  carried  on  upon  a  septenary  Earth.  This  is  spoken 
of  in  Theosophical  literature  as  the  Sevenfold  Planet- 
ary Chain,  and  is  intimately  connected  with  Man's 
special  evolution. 


CHAPTER  III. 

JOMING  now  to  our  Earth  the  view  put  for- 
ward by  Theosophy  regarding  its  genesis, 
its  evolution  and  the  evolution  of  the  Hu- 
man, Animal  and  other  Monads,  is  quite 
different  from  modern  ideas,  and  in  some  things 
contrary  to  accepted  theories.  But  the  theories  of 
to-day  are  not  stable.  They  change  with  each  cen- 
tury, while  the  Theosophical  one  never  alters  be- 
cause, in  the  opinion  of  those  Elder  Brothers  who 
have  caused  its  repromulgation  and  pointed  to  its 
confirmation  in  ancient  books,  it  is  but  a  statement 
of  fadts  in  nature.  The  modern  theory  is,  on  the 
contrary,  always  speculative,  changeable,  and  con- 
tinually altered. 

Following  the  general  plan  outlined  in  preceding 
pages,  the  Earth  is  sevenfold.  It  is  an  entity  and 
not  a  mere  lump  of  gross  matter.  And  being  thus 
an  entity  of  a  septenary  nature  there  must  be  six 
other  globes  which  roll  with  it  in  space.  This  com- 
pany of  seven  globes  has  been  called  the  ' '  Earth 
Chain",  the  "Planetary  Chain".  In  Esoteric  Bud- 
dhism this  is  clearly  stated,  but  there  a  rather  hard 
and  fast  materialistic  view  of  it  is  given  and  the 
reader  led  to  believe  that  the  doctrine  speaks  of 
seven  distinct  globes,  all  separated  from  though  con- 
nected with  each  other.  One  is  forced  to  conclude 
that  the  author  meant  to  say  that  the  globe  Earth 
is  as  distinct  from  the  other  six  as  Venus  is  from 
Mars. 

This  is  not  the  doctrine.  The  earth  is  one  of 
seven  globes,  in  respect  to  man's  consciousness  only, 
because  when  he  functions  on  one  of  the  seven  he 
perceives  it  as  a  distinct  globe  and  does  not  see  the 


24  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

other  six.  This  is  in  perfect  correspondence  with 
man  himself  who  has  six  other  constituents  of  which 
only  the  gross  body  is  visible  to  him  because  he  is 
now  functioning  on  the  Earth — or  the  fourth  globe — 
and  his  body  represents  the  Earth.  The  whole  seven 
"globes"  constitute  one  single  mass  or  great  globe 
and  they  all  interpenetrate  each  other.  But  we  have 
to  say  "globe",  because  the  ultimate  shape  is  globu- 
lar or  spherical.  If  one  relies  too  closely  on  the  ex- 
planation made  by  Mr.  Sinnett  it  might  be  supposed 
that  the  globes  did  not  interpenetrate  each  other 
but  were  connected  by  currents  or  lines  of  magnetic 
force.  And  if  too  close  attention  is  paid  to  the  dia- 
grams used  in  the  Secret  Doctrine  to  illustrate  the 
scheme,  without  paying  due  regard  to  the  explana- 
tions and  cautions .  given  by  H.  P.  Blavatsky,  the 
same  error  may  be  made.  But  both  she  and  her 
Adept  teachers  say,  that  the  seven  globes  of  our 
chain  are  in  "  coadunition  with  each  other  but  not  in  con- 
substantiality  ".  *  This  is  further  enforced  by  cautions 
not  to  rely  on  statistics  or  plane  surface  diagrams, 
but  to  .'ook  at  the  metaphysical  and  spiritual  aspect 
of  the  theory  as  stated  in  English.  Thus  from  the 
very  source  of  Mr.  Sinnett's  book  we  have  the  state- 
ment, that  these  globes  are  united  in  one  mass 
though  differing  from  each  other  in  substance,  and 
that  this  difference  of  substance  is  due  to  change  of 
centre  of  consciousness. 

The  Earth  Chain  of  seven  globes  as  thus  defined 
is  the  dire<5l  reincarnation  of  a  former  chain  of  seven 
globes,  and  that  former  family  of  seven  was  the 
moon  chain,  the  moon  itself  being  the  visible  repre- 
sentative of  the  fourth  globe  of  the  old  chain.  When 
that  former  vast  entity  composed  of  the  Moon  and 
six  others,  all  united  in  one  mass,  reached  its  limit  of 
life  it  died  just  as  any  being  dies.  Each  one  of  the 
seven  sent  its  energies  into  space  and  gave  similar 
life  or  vibration  to  cosmic  dust — matter, — and  the 

:  Secret  Doctrine,  Vol.  i,  p.  166,  first  edition. 


MARS   AND    MERCURY   IN    OTHER   CHAINS.  25 

total  cohesive  force  of  the  whole  kept  the  seven  ener- 
gies together.  This  resulted  in  the  evolving  of  the 
present  Earth  Chain  of  seven  centres  of  energy  or 
evolution  combined  in  one  mass.  As  the  Moon  was 
the  fourth  of  the  old  series  it  is  on  the  same  plane  of 
perception  as  the  Earth,  and  as  we  are  now  confined 
in  our  consciousness  largely  to  Earth  we  are  able 
only  to  see  one  of  the  old  seven — to  wit :  our  Moon. 
When  we  are  functioning  on  any  of  the  other  seven 
we  will  perceive  in  our  sky  the  corresponding  old 
corpse  which  will  then  be  a  Moon,  and  we  will  not  see 
the  present  Moon.  Venus,  Mars,  Mercury  and  other 
visible  planets  are  all  fourth-plane  globes  of  distinct 
planetary  masses  and  for  that  reason  are  visible  to 
us,  their  companion  six  centres  of  energy  and  consci- 
ousness being  invisible.  All  diagrams  on  plane  sur- 
faces will  only  becloud  the  theory  because  a  diagram 
necessitates  linear  divisions. 

The  stream  or  mass  of  Egos  which  evolves  on  the 
seven  globes  of  our  chain  is  limited  in  number,  yet 
the  actual  quantity  is  enormous.  For  though  the 
universe  is  limitless  and  infinite,  yet  in  any  particular 
portion  of  Cosmos  in  which  manifestation  and  evolu- 
tion have  begun  there  is  a  limit  to  the  extent  of 
manifestation  and  to  the  number  of  Egos  engaged 
therein.  And  the  whole  number  of  Monads  now  go- 
ing through  evolution  on  our  Earth  Chain  came  over 
from  the  old  seven  planets  or  globes  which  I  have 
described.  Esoteric  Buddhism  calls  this  mass  of  Egos 
a  "life  wave",  meaning  the  stream  of  Monads.  It 
reached  this  planetary  mass,  represented  to  our  con- 
sciousness by  the  central  point  our  Earth,  and  began 
on  Globe  A  or  No.  i,  coming  like  an  army  or  river. 
The  first  portion  began  on  Globe  A  and  went  through 
a  long  evolution  there  in  bodies  suited  to  such  a  state 
of  matter,  and  then  passed  on  to  B,  and  so  on  through 
the  whole  seven  greater  states  of  consciousness  which 
have  been  called  globes.  When  the  first  portion  left 
A  others  streamed  in  and  pursued  the  same  course, 


26  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

the  whole  army  proceeding  with  regularity  round  the 
septenary  route. 

This  journey  went  on  for  four  circlings  round  the 
whole,  and  then  the  whole  stream  or  army  of  Egos 
from  the  old  Moon  Chain  had  arrived,  and  being 
complete,  no  more  entered  after  the  middle  of  the 
Fourth  Round.  The  same  circling  process  of  these 
differently  arrived  classes  goes  on  for  seven  complete 
Rounds  of  the  whole  seven  planetary  centres  of  con- 
sciousness, and  when  the  seven  are  ended  as  much 
perfection  as  is  possible  in  the  immense  period  occu- 
pied will  have  been  attained,  and  then  this  chain  or 
mass  of  ' '  globes  "  will  die  in  its  turn  to  give  birth  to 
still  another  series. 

Each  one  of  the  globes  is  used  by  evolutionary  law 
for  the  development  of  seven  races,  and  of  senses, 
faculties  and  powers  appropriate  to  that  state  of  mat- 
ter :  the  experience  of  the  whole  seven  globes  being 
needed  to  make  a  perfect  development.  Hence  we 
have  the  Rounds  and  Races.  The  Round  is  a  cir- 
cling of  the  seven  centres  of  planetary  consciousness ; 
the  Race  the  racial  development  on  one  of  those 
seven.  There  are  seven  races  for  each  globe,  but 
the  total  of  forty-nine  races  only  makes  up  seven 
great  races,  the  special  septennate  of  races  on  each 
globe  or  planetary  centre  composing  in  reality  one 
race  of  seven  constituents  or  special  peculiarities  of 
function  and  power. 

And  as  no  complete  race  could  be  evolved  in  a 
moment  on  any  globe,  the  slow,  orderly  processes  of 
nature,  which  allow  no  jumps,  must  proceed  by  ap- 
propriate means.  Hence  sub-races  have  to  be  evolved 
one  after  the  other  before  the  perfect  root  race  is 
formed,  and  then  the  root  race  sends  off  its  off-shoots 
while  it  is  declining  and  preparing  for  the  advent  of 
the  next  great  race. 

As  illustrating  this,  it  is  distinctly  taught  that  on 
the  Americas  is  to  be  evolved  the  new — sixth — race ; 
and  here  all  the  races  of  the  earth  are  now  engaged 


MONADS   ESSENTIAL    TO   EVOLUTION.  27 

in  a  great  amalgamation  from  which  will  result  a 
very  highly  developed  sub-race,  after  which  others 
will  be  evolved  by  similar  processes  until  the  new 
one  is  completed. 

Between  the  end  of  any  great  race  and  the  begin- 
ning of  another  there  is  a  period  of  rest,  so  far  as 
the  globe  is  concerned,  for  then  the  stream  of  human 
Egos  leaves  it  for  another  one  of  the  chain  in  order 
to  go  on  with  further  evolution  of  powers  and  facul- 
ties there.  But  when  the  last,  the  seventh,  race  has 
appeared  and  fully  perfected  itself,  a  great  dissolu- 
tion comes  on,  similar  to  that  which  I  briefly  de- 
scribed as  preceding  the  birth  of  the  earth's  chain, 
and  then  the  world  disappears  as  a  tangible  thing, 
and  so  far  as  the  human  ear  is  concerned  there  is 
silence.  This,  it  is  said,  is  the  root  of  the  belief  so 
general  that  the  world  will  come  to  an  end,  that 
there  will  be  a  judgment-day,  or  that  there  have 
been  universal  floods  or  fires. 

Taking  up  evolution  on  the  Earth,  it  is  stated  that 
the  stream  of  Monads  begins  first  to  work  up  the 
mass  of  matter  in  what  are  called  elemental  condi- 
tions when  all  is  gaseous  or  fiery.  For  the  ancient 
and  true  theory  is  that  no  evolution  is  possible  with- 
out the  Monad  as  vivifying  agent.  In  this  first  stage 
there  is  no  animal  or  vegetable.  Next  comes  the 
mineral  when  the  whole  mass  hardens,  the  Monads 
being  all  imprisoned  within.  Then  the  first  Monads 
emerge  into  vegetable  forms  which  they  construct 
themselves,  and  no  animals  yet  appear.  Next  the 
first  class  of  Monads  emerges  from  the  vegetable  and 
produces  the  animal,  then  the  human  astral  and  shad- 
owy model,  and  we  have  minerals,  vegetables,  ani- 
mals and  future  men,  for  the  second  and  later  classes 
are  still  evolving  in  the  lower  kingdoms.  When  the 
middle  of  the  Fourth  Round  is  reached  no  more 
Monads  emerge  into  the  human  stage  and  will  not 
until  a  new  planetary  mass,  reincarnated  from  ours, 
is  made.  This  is  the  whole  process  roughly  given, 


28  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

but  with  many  details  left  out,  for  in  one  of  the 
rounds  man  appears  before  the  animals.  But  this 
detail  need  lead  to  no  confusion. 

And  to  state  it  in  another  way.  The  plan  comes 
first  in  the  universal  mind,  after  which  the  astral 
model  or  basis  is  made,  and  when  that  astral  model 
is  completed,  the  whole  process  is  gone  over  so  as  to 
condense  the  matter,  up  to  the  middle  of  the  Fourth 
Round.  Subsequent  to  that,  which  is  our  future,  the 
whole  mass  is  spiritualized  with  full  consciousness 
and  the  entire  body  of  globes  raised  up  to  a  higher 
plane  of  development.  In  the  process  of  condensing 
above  referred  to  there  is  an  alteration  in  respect  to 
the  time  of  the  appearance  of  man  on  the  planet. 
But  as  to  these  details  the  teachers  have  only  said, 
' '  that  at  the  Second  Round  the  plan  varies,  but  the 
variation  will  not  be  given  to  this  generation". 
Hence  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  give  it.  But  there 
is  no  vagueness  on  the  point  that  seven  great  races 
have  to  evolve  here  on  this  planet,  and  that  the  en- 
tire collection  of  races  has  to  go  seven  times  round 
the  whole  series  of  seven  globes. 

Human  beings  did  not  appear  here  in  two  sexes 
first.  The  first  were  of  no  sex,  then  they  altered 
into  hermaphrodite,  and  lastly  separated  into  male 
and  female.  And  this  separation  into  male  and  fe- 
male for  human  beings  was  over  18,000,000  years 
ago.  For  that  reason  is  it  said,  in  these  ancient 
schools,  that  our  humanity  is  18,000,000  years  old 
and  a  little  over. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ESPECTING  the  nature  of  man  there  are  two 
ideas  current  in  the  religious  circles  of 
Christendom.  One  is  the  teaching  and  the 
other  the  common  acceptation  of  it  ;  the 
first  is  not  secret,  to  be  sure,  in  the  Church,  but  it  is 
so  seldom  dwelt  upon  in  the  hearing  of  the  laity  as 
to  be  almost  arcane  for  the  ordinary  person.  Nearly 
everyone  says  he  has  a  soul  and  a  body,  and  there  it 
ends.  What  the  soul  is,  and  whether  it  is  the  real 
person  or  whether  it  has  any  powers  of  its  own,  are 
not  inquired  into,  the  preachers  usually  confining 
themselves  to  its  salvation  or  damnation.  And  by 
thus  talking  of  it  as  something  different  from  one- 
self, the  people  have  acquired  an  underlying  notion 
that  they  are  not  souls  because  the  soul  may  be  lost 
by  them.  From  this  has  come  about  a  tendency  to 
materialism  causing  men  to  pay  more  attention  to 
the  body  than  to  the  soul,  the  latter  being  left  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  the  priest  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olics, and  among  dissenters  the  care  of  it  is  most  fre- 
quently put  off  to  the  dying  day.  But  when  the  true 
teaching  is  known  it  will  be  seen  that  the  care  of  the 
soul,  which  is  the  Self,  is  a  vital  matter  requiring 
attention  every  day,  and  not  to  be  deferred  without 
grievous  injury  resulting  to  the  whole  man,  both  soul 
and  body. 

The  Christian  teaching,  supported  by  St.  Paul, 
since  upon  him,  in  fa6l,  dogmatic  Christianity  rests, 
is  that  man  is  composed  of  body,  soul,  and  spirit. 
This  is  the  threefold  constitution  of  man,  believed 
by  the  theologians  but  kept  in  the  background  be- 
cause its  examination  might  result  in  the  readop- 
tion  of  views  once  orthodox  but  now  heretical.  For 


30  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

when  we  thu&  place  soul  between  spirit  and  body,  we 
come  very  close  to  the  necessity  for  looking  into  the 
question  of  the  soul's  responsibility — since  mere  body 
can  have  no  responsibility.  And  in  order  to  make 
the  soul  responsible  for  the  acts  performed,  we  must 
assume  that  it  has  powers  and  functions.  From  this 
it  is  easy  to  take  the  position  that  the  soul  may  be  ra- 
tional or  irrational,  as  the  Greeks  sometimes  thought, 
and  then  there  is  but  a  step  to  further  Theosophical 
propositions.  This  threefold  scheme  of  the  nature 
of  man  contains,  in  fact,  the  Theosophical  teaching 
of  his  sevenfold  constitution,  because  the  four  other 
divisions  missing  from  the  category  can  be  found  in 
the  powers  and  functions  of  body  and  soul,  as  I  shall 
attempt  to  show  later  on.  This  conviction  that  man 
is  a  septenary  and  not  merely  a  duad,  was  held  long 
ago  and  very  plainly  taught  to  every  one  with  accom- 
panying demonstrations,  but  like  other  philosophical 
tenets  it  disappeared  from  sight,  because  gradually 
withdrawn  at  the  time  when  in  the  east  of  Europe 
morals  were  degenerating  and  before  materialism 
had  gained  full  sway  in  company  with  scepticism,  its 
twin.  Upon  its  withdrawal  the  present  dogma  of 
body,  soul,  spirit,  was  left  to  Christendom.  The 
reason  for  that  concealment  and  its  rejuvenescence 
in  this  century  is  well  put  by  Mme.  H.  P.  Blavat- 
sky  in  the  Secret  Doctrine.  In  answer  to  the  state- 
ment, "we  cannot  understand  how  any  danger  could 
arise  from  the  revelation  of  such  a  purely  philosoph- 
ical doctrine  as  the  evolution  of  the  planetary  chain, " 
she  says: 

The  danger  was  this :  Doctrines  such  as  the  Planetary  chain 
or  the  seven  races  at  once  give  a  clue  to  the  sevenfold  nature 
of  man,  for  each  principle  is  correlated  to  a  plane,  a  planet,  and 
a  race;  and  the  human  principles  are,  on  every  plane,  corre- 
lated to  the  sevenfold  occult  forces — those  of  the  higher  planes 
being  of  tremendous  occult  power,  the  abuse  of  which  would 
cause  incalculable  evil  to  humanity.  A  clue  which  is,  perhaps, 
no  clue  to  the  present  generation — especially  the  Westerns — 
protected  as  they  are  by  their  very  blindness  and  ignorant  ma- 
terialistic disbelief  in  the  occult ;  but  a  clue  which  would,  never- 


THE   SEVENFOLD   CLASSIFICATION.  31 

theless,  be  very  real  in  the  early  centuries  ot  tne  cnnstian  era, 
to  people  fully  convinced  of  the  reality  of  occultism  and  entering 
a  cycle  of  degradation  which  made  them  ripe  for  abuse  of  oc- 
cult powers  and  sorcery  of  the  worst  description. 

Mr.  A.  P.  Sinnett,  at  one  time  an  official  in  the 
Government  of  India,  first  outlined  in  this  century 
the  real  nature  of  man  in  his  book  Esoteric  Buddhism, 
which  was  made  up  from  information  conveyed  to 
him  by  H.  P.  Blavatsky  directly  from  the  Great 
Lodge  of  Initiates  to  which  reference  has  been  made. 
And  in  thus  placing  the  old  doctrine  before  western 
civilization  he  conferred  a  great  benefit  on  his  gen- 
eration and  helped  considerably  the  cause  of  Theos- 
ophy.  His  classification  was: 

i.)  The  Body,  or  Rupa. 
2.)  Vitality,  or  Prana-Jiva. 
3.)  Astral  Body,  or  Linga-Sarira. 
4.  \  Animal  Soul,  or  Kama- Rupa. 

($.\  Human  Soul,  or  Manas. 

(6. )  Spiritual  Soul,  or  Buddhi. 

(7.)  Spirit,  or  Atma, 

The  words  in  italics  being  equivalents  in  the  San- 
scrit language  adopted  by  him  for  the  English  terms. 
This  classification  stands  to  this  day  for  all  practical 
purposes,  but  it  is  capable  of  modification  and  ex- 
tension. For  instance,  a  later  arrangement  which 
places  Astral  body  second  instead  of  third  in  the  cate- 
gory does  not  substantially  alter  it.  It  at  once  gives 
an  idea  of  what  man  is,  very  different  from  the  vague 
description  by  the  words  "body  and  soul",  and  also 
boldly  challenges  the  materialistic  conception  that 
mind  is  the  product  of  brain,  a  portion  of  the  body. 
No  claim  is  made  that  these  principles  were  hitherto 
unknown,  for  they  were  all  understood  in  various 
ways  not  only  by  the  Hindus  but  by  many  Europe- 
ans. Yet  the  compact  presentation  of  the  sevenfold 
constitution  of  man  in  intimate  connection  with  the 
septenary  constitution  of  a  chain  of  globes  through 
which  the  being  evolves,  had  not  been  given  out. 


3«     .  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

The  French  Abbe",  Eliphas  Levi,  wrote  about  the  as- 
tral realm  and  the  astral  body,  but  evidently  had  no 
knowledge  of  the  remainder  of  the  doctrine,  and 
while  the  Hindus  possessed  the  other  terms  in  their 
language  and  philosophy,  they  did  not  use  a  septen- 
ary classification,  but  depended  chiefly  on  a  fourfold 
one  and  certainly  concealed  (if  they  knew  of  it)  the 
doctrine  of  a  chain  of  seven  globes  including  our 
earth.  Indeed,  a  learned  Hindu,  Subba  Row,  now 
deceased,  asserted  that  they  knew  of  a  seven-fold 
classification,  but  that  it  had  not  been  and  would  not 
be  given  out. 

Considering  these  constituents  in  another  manner, 
we  would  say  that  the  lower  man  is  a  composite  be- 
ing, but  in  his  real  nature  is  a  unity,  or  immortal  be- 
ing, comprising  a  trinity  of  Spirit,  Discernment,  and 
Mind  which  requires  four  lower  mortal  instruments 
or  vehicles  through  which  to  work  in  matter  and  ob- 
tain experience  from  Nature.  This  trinity  is  that 
called  Atma-Buddhi- Manas  in  Sanscrit,  difficult  terms 
to  render  in  English.  Atma  is  Spirit,  Buddhi  is  the 
highest  power  of  intellection,  that  which  discerns 
and  judges,  and  Manas  is  Mind.  This  threefold  col- 
lection is  the  real  man ;  and  beyond  doubt  the  doct- 
rine is  the  origin  of  the  theological  one  of  the  trinity 
of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  The  four  lower 
instruments  or  vehicles  are  shown  in  this  table : 

(The  Passions  and  Desires, 
Life  Principle, 

1  Astral  Body, 
[physical  B^y< 

These  four  lower  material  constituents  are  transi- 
tory and  subject  to  disintegration  in  themselves  as 
well  as  to  separation  from  each  other.  When  the 
hour  arrives  for  their  separation  to  begin,  the  combi- 
nation can  no  longer  be  kept  up,  the  physical  body 
dies,  the  atoms  of  which  each  of  the  four  is  com- 
posed begin  to  separate  from  each  other,  and  the 


THE   TWO    PHYSICAL   MEN.  33 

whole  collection  being  disjointed  is  no  longer  fit  for 
one  as  an  instrument  for  the  real  man.  This  is  what 
is  called  "death"  among  us  mortals,  but  it  is  not 
death  for  the  real  man  because  he  is  deathless,  per- 
sistent, immortal.  He  is  therefore  called  the  Triad, 
or  indestructible  trinity,  while  they  are  known  as  the 
Quaternary  or  mortal  four. 

This  quaternary  or  lower  man  is  a  product  of  cos- 
mic or  physical  laws  and  substance.  It  has  been 
evolved  during  a  lapse  of  ages,  like  any  other  phys- 
ical thing,  from  cosmic  substance,  and  is  therefore 
subject  to  physical,  physiological,  and  psychical  laws 
which  govern  the  race  of  man  as  a  whole.  Hence 
its  period  of  possible  continuance  can  be  calculated 
just  as  the  limit  of  tensile  strain  among  the  metals 
used  in  bridge  building  can  be  deduced  by  the  engi- 
neer. Any  one  collection  in  the  form  of  man  made 
up  of  these  constituents  is  therefore  limited  in  dura- 
tion by  the  laws  of  the  evolutionary  period  in  which 
it  exists.  Just  now,  that  is  generally  seventy  to  one 
hundred  years,  but  its  possible  duration  is  longer. 
Thus  there  are  in  history  instances  where  ordinary 
persons  have  lived  to  be  two  hundred  years  of  age ; 
and  by  a  knowledge  of  the  occult  laws  of  nature  the 
possible  limit  of  duration  may  be  extended  nearly  to 
four  hundred  years. 

Brain, 

Nerves, 


The  visible 
physical 
man  is: 


Blood, 

Bones, 

Lymph, 

Muscles, 

Organs  of  Sensation  and  Action, 

and  Skin. 

Astral  Body, 

Passions  and  Desires, 

Life  Principle,  (called 


The  unseen 
physical 
man  is : 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  physical  part  of  our  nature  is 


34  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

thus  extended  to  a  second  department  which,  though 
invisible  to  the  physical  eye,  is  nevertheless  material 
and  sub j  eel:  to  decay.  Because  people  in  general 
have  been  in  the  habit  of  admitting  to  be  real  only 
what  they  can  see  with  the  physical  eye,  they  have 
at  last  come  to  suppose  that  the  unseen  is  neither 
real  nor  material.  But  they  forgot  that  even  on  the 
earth  plane  noxious  gases  are  invisible  though  real 
and  powerfully  material,  and  that  water  may  exist 
in  the  air  held  suspended  and  invisible  until  condi- 
tions alter  and  cause  its  precipitation. 

Let  us  recapitulate  before  going  into  details.  The 
Real  Man  is  the  trinity  of  Atma-Buddhi-  Manas,  or 
Spirit  and  Mind,  and  he  uses  certain  agents  and 
instruments  to  get  in  touch  with  nature  in  order  to 
know  himself.  These  instruments  and  agents  are 
found  in  the  lower  Four — or  the  Quaternary — each 
principle  in  which  category  is  of  itself  an  instrument 
for  the  particular  experience  belonging  to  its  own 
field,  the  body  being  the  lowest,  least  important,  and 
most  transitory  of  the  whole  series.  For  when  we 
arrive  at  the  body  on  the  way  down  from  the  Higher 
Mind,  it  can  be  shown  that  all  of  its  organs  are  in 
themselves  senseless  and  useless  when  deprived  of 
the  man  within.  Sight,  hearing,  touch,  taste,  and 
smelling  do  not  pertain  to  the  body  but  to  the  second 
unseen  physical  man,  the  real  organs  for  the  exer- 
cise of  those  powers  being  in  the  Astral  Body,  and 
those  in  the  physical  body  being  but  the  mechanical 
outer  instruments  for  making  the  coordination  be- 
tween nature  and  the  real  organs  inside. 


CHAPTER  V. 

HE  body,  as  a  mass  of  flesh,  bones,  muscles, 
nerves,  brain  matter,  bile,  mucous,  blood, 
and  skin  is  an  object  of  exclusive  care  for 
too  many  people,  who  make  it  their  god 
because  they  have  come  to  identify  themselves  with 
it,  meaning  it  only  when  they  say  "  I. "  Left  to  itself 
it  is  devoid  of  sense,  and  acts  in  such  a  case  solely  by 
reflex  and  automatic  action.  This  we  see  in  sleep,  for 
then  the  body  assumes  attitudes  and  makes  motions 
which  the  waking  man  does  not  permit.  It  is  like 
mother  earth  in  that  it  is  made  up  of  an  infmitessimal 
number  of  "lives".  Each  of  these  lives  is  a  sensi- 
tive point.  Not  only  are  there  microbes,  bacilli,  and 
bacteria,  but  these  are  composed  of  others,  and  those 
others  of  still  more  minute  lives.  These  lives  are  not 
the  cells  of  the  body,  but  make  up  the  cells,  keeping 
ever  within  the  limits  assigned  by  evolution  to  the 
cell.  They  are  forever  whirling  and  moving  together 
throughout  the  whole  body,  being  in  certain  appar- 
ently void  spaces  as  well  as  where  flesh,  membrane, 
bones,  and  blood  are  seen.  They  extend,  too,  beyond 
the  actual  outer  limits  of  the  body  to  a  measurable 
distance. 

One  of  the  mysteries  of  physical  life  is  hidden 
among  these  "lives".  Their  action,  forced  forward 
by  the  Life  energy — called  Prana  or  Jiva — will  ex- 
plain active  existence  and  physical  death.  They  are 
divided  into  two  classes,  one  the  destroyers,  the  other 
the  preservers,  and  these  two  war  upon  each  other 
from  birth  until  the  destroyers  win.  In  this  struggle 
the  Life  Energy  itself  ends  the  contest  because  it  is 
life  that  kills.  This  may  seem  heterodox,  but  in  Theo- 
sophical  philosophy  it  is  held  to  be  the  fact.  For,  it 


36  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

is  said,  the  infant  lives  because  the  combination  of 
healthy  organs  is  able  to  absorb  the  life  all  around  it 
in  space,  and  is  put  to  sleep  each  day  by  the  over- 
powering' strength  of  the  stream  of  life,  since  the 
preservers  among  the  cells  of  the  youthful  body  are 
not  yet  mastered  by  the  other  class.  These  processes 
of  going  to  sleep  and  waking  again  are  simply  and 
solely  the  restoring  of  the  equilibrium  in  sleep  and 
the  action  produced  by  disturbing  it  when  awake.  It 
may  be  compared  with  the  arc-electric  light  wherein 
the  brilliant  arc  of  light  at  the  point  of  resistance  is 
the  symbol  of  the  waking  active  man.  So  in  sleep 
we  are  again  absorbing  and  not  resisting  the  Life 
Energy ;  when  we  wake  we  are  throwing  it  off.  But 
as  it  exists  around  us  like  an  ocean  in  which  we  swim, 
our  power  to  throw  it  off  is  necessarily  limited.  Just 
when  we  wake  we  are  in  equilibrium  as  to  our  organs 
and  life ;  when  we  fall  asleep  we  are  yet  more  full  of 
life  than  in  the  morning;  it  has  exhausted  us;  it 
finally  kills  the  body.  Such  a  contest  could  not  be 
waged  forever,  since  the  whole  solar  system's  weight 
of  life  is  pitted  against  the  power  to  resist  focussed 
in  one  small  human  frame. 

The  body  is  considered  by  the  Masters  of  Wisdom 
to  be  the  most  transitory,  impermanent,  and  illusion- 
ary  of  the  whole  series  of  constituents  in  man.  Not 
for  a  moment  is  it  the  same.  Ever  changing,  in 
motion  in  every  part,  it  is  in  fact  never  complete  or 
finished  though  tangible.  The  ancients  clearly  per- 
ceived this,  for  they  elaborated  a  doctrine  called  Nai- 
mittika  Pralaya,  or  the  continual  change  in  material 
things,  the  continual  destruction.  This  is  known  now 
to  science  in  the  doctrine  that  the  body  undergoes  a 
complete  alteration  and  renovation  every  seven  years. 
At  the  end  of  the  first  seven  years  it  is  not  the  same 
body  it  was  in  the  beginning.  At  the  end  of  our  days 
it  has  changed  seven  times,  perhaps  more.  And  yet 
it  presents  the  same  general  appearance  from  matur- 
ity until  death ;  and  it  is  a  human  form  from  birth  to 


WHAT   LIFE   IS.  37 

maturity.  This  is  a  mystery  science  explains  not ;  it 
is  a  question  pertaining  to  the  cell  and  to  the  means 
whereby  the  general  human  shape  is  preserved. 

The  "cell  "  is  an  illusion.  It  is  merely  a  word.  It 
has  no  existence  as  a  material  thing,  for  any  cell  is 
composed  of  other  cells.  What,  then,  is  a  cell?  It  is 
the  ideal  form  within  which  the  actual  physical  atoms 
— made  up  of  the  "lives" — arrange  themselves.  As 
it  is  admitted  that  the  physical  molecules  are  forever 
rushing  away  from  the  body,  they  must  be  leaving  the 
cells  each  moment.  Hence  there  is  no  physical  cell, 
but  the  privative  limits  of  one,  the  ideal  walls  and 
general  shape.  The  molecules  assume  position  with- 
in the  ideal  shape  according  to  the  laws  of  nature,  and 
leave  it  again  almost  at  once  to  give  place  to  other 
atoms.  And  as  it  is  thus  with  the  body,  so  is  it  with 
the  earth  and  with  the  solar  system.  Thus  also  is  it, 
though  in  slower  measure,  with  all  material  objects. 
They  are  all  in  constant  motion  and  change.  This  is 
modern  and  also  ancient  wisdom.  This  is  the  physi- 
cal explanation  of  clairvoyance,  clairaudiance,  tele- 
pathy, and  mind-reading.  It  helps  to  show  us  what 
a  deluding  and  unsatisfactory  thing  our  body  is. 

Although,  strictly  speaking,  the  second  constituent 
of  man  is  the  Astral  Body — called  in  Sanscrit  Linga 
Sarira — we  will  consider  Life  Energy — or  Prana  and 
Jiva  in  Sanscrit — together,  because  to  our  observation 
the  phenomenon  of  life  is  more  plainly  exhibited  in 
connection  with  the  body. 

Life  is  not  the  result  of  the  operation  of  the  organs, 
nor  is  j4f  gone  when  the  body  dissolves.  It  is  a  uni- 
versally pervasive  principle.  It  is  the  ocean  in  which 
the  earth  floats;  it  permeates  the  globe  and  every 
being  and  object  on  it.  It  works  unceasingly  on  and 
around  us,  pulsating  against  and  through  us  forever. 
When  we  occupy  a  body  we  merely  use  a  more  special- 
ized instrument  than  any  other  for  dealing  with  both 
Prana  and  Jiva.  Strictly  speaking,  Prana  is  breath ; 
and  as  breath  is  necessary  for  continuance  of  life  in 


38  THE   OCEAN    OF   THEOSOPHY. 

the  human  machine,  that  is  the  better  word.  Jiva 
means  "life",  and  also  is  applied  to  the  living  soul, 
for  the  life  in  general  is  derived  from  the  Supreme 
Life  itself.  Jiva  is  therefore  capable  of  general  ap- 
plication, whereas  Prana  is  more  particular.  It  can- 
not be  said  that  one  has  a  definite  amount  of  this 
Life  Energy  which  will  fly  back  to  its  source  should 
the  body  be  burned,  but  rather  that  it  works  with 
whatever  be  the  mass  of  matter  in  it.  We,  as  it  were, 
secrete  or  use  it  as  we  live.  For  whether  we  are  alive 
or  dead,  life-energy  is  still  there;  in  life  among  our 
organs  sustaining  them,  in  death  among  the  innumer- 
able creatures  that  arise  from  our  destruction.  We 
can  no  more  do  away  with  this  life  than  we  can  erase 
the  air  in  which  the  bird  floats,  and  like  the  air  it 
fills  all  the  spaces  on  the  planet,  so  that  nowhere  can 
we  lose  the  benefit  of  it  nor  escape  its  final  crush- 
ing power.  But  in  working  upon  the  physical  body 
this  life — Prana — needs  a  vehicle,  means,  or  guide, 
and  this  vehicle  is  the  astral  body. 

There  are  many  names  for  the  Astral  Body.  Here 
are  a  few:  Linga  Sarira,  Sanscrit,  meaning  design 
body,  and  the  best  one  of  all ;  ethereal  double ;  phan- 
tom; wraith;  apparition;  doppelganger ;  personal 
man ;  perisprit ;  irrational  soul ;  animal  soul ;  Bhuta; 
elementary;  spook;  devil;  demon.  Some  of  these 
apply  only  to  the  astral  body  when  devoid  of  the  cor- 
pus after  death.  Hhuta,  devil,  and  elementary  are 
nearly  synonymous  ;  the  first  Sanscrit,  the  other 
English.  With  the  Hindus  the  Bhuta  is  the  Astral 
Body  when  it  is  by  death  released  from  the  body  and 
the  mind ;  and  being  thus  separated  from  conscience, 
is  a  devil  in  their  estimation.  They  are  not  far 
wrong,  if  we  abolish  the  old  notion  that  a  devil  is 
an  angel  fallen  from  heaven,  for  this  bodily  devil  is 
something  which  rises  from  the  earth. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  term  Astral  Body*H- 
not  the  right  one  for  this  purpose.     The  objection  is 
one  which  arises  from  the  nature  and  genesis  of  the 


THE    ASTRAL   BODY.  39 

English  language,  for  as  that  has  grown  up  in  a 
struggle  with  nature  and  among  a  commercial  people 
it  has  not  as  yet  coined  the  words  needed  for  design- 
ating the  great  range  of  faculties  and  organs  of  the 
unseen  man.  And  as  its  philosophers  have  not  ad- 
mitted the  existence  of  these  inner  organs,  the  right 
terms  do  not  exist  in  the  language.  So  in  looking 
for  words  to  describe  the  inner  body  the  only  ones 
found  in  English  were  the  "astral  body".  This  term 
comes  near  to  the  real  fact,  since  the  substance  of 
this  form  is  derived  from  cosmic  matter  or  star  mat- 
ter, roughly  speaking.  But  the  old  Sanscrit  word 
describes  it  exactly — Linga  Sarira,  the  design  body 
— because  it  is  the  design  or  model  for  the  physical 
body.  This  is  better  than  "  ethereal  body  ",  as  the 
latter  might  be  said  to  be  subsequent  to  the  physical, 
whereas  in  fact  the  astral  body  precedes  the  material 
one. 

The  astral  body  is  made  of  matter  of  very  fine  tex- 
ture as  compared  with  the  visible  body,  and  has  a 
great  tensile  strength,  so  that  it  changes  but  little 
during  a  lifetime,  while  the  physical  alters  every  mo- 
ment. And  not  only  has  it  this  immense  strength, 
but  at  the  same  time  possesses  an  elasticity  permit- 
ing  its  extension  to  a  considerable  distance.  It  is 
flexible,  plastic,  extensible,  and  strong.  The  matter 
of  which  it  is  composed  is  electrical  and  magnetic  in 
its  essence,  and  is  just  what  the  whole  world  was  com- 
posed of  in  the  dim  past  when  the  processes  of  evo- 
lution had  not  yet  arrived  at  the  point  of  producing 
the  material  body  for  man.  But  it  is  not  raw  or 
crude  matter.  Having  been  through  a  vast  period 
of  evolution  and  undergone  purifying  processes  of 
an  incalculable  number,  its  nature  has  been  refined 
to  a  degree  far  beyond  the  gross  physical  elements 
we  see  and  touch  with  the  physical  eye  and  hand. 

The  astral  body  is  the  guiding  model  for  the  phys- 
ical one,  and  all  the  other  kingdoms  have  the  same 
astral  model.  Vegetables,  minerals,  and  animals  have 


40  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

the  ethereal  double,  and  this  theory  is  the  only  one 
which  will  answer  the  question  how  it  is  that  the 
seed  produces  its  own  kind  and  all  sentient  beings 
bring  forth  their  like?  Biologists  can  only  say  that 
the  facts  are  as  we  know  them,  but  can  give  no  reas- 
on why  the  acorn  will  never  grow  anything  but  an 
oak  except  that  no  man  ever  knew  it  to  be  otherwise. 
But  in  the  old  schools  of  the  past  the  true  doctrine 
was  known,  and  it  has  been  once  again  brought  out 
in  the  West  through  the  efforts  of  H.  P.  Blavatsky 
and  those  who  have  found  inspiration  in  her  works. 
This  doctrine  is,  that  in  early  times  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  this  globe  the  various  kingdoms  of  nature  are 
outlined  in  plan  or  ideal  form  first,  and  then  the  astral 
matter  begins  to  work  on  this  plan  with  the  aid  of  the 
Life  principle,  until  after  long  ages  the  astral  human 
form  is  evolved  and  perfected.  This  is,  then,  the  first 
form  that  the  human  race  had,  and  corresponds  in  a 
way  with  the  allegory  of  man's  state  in  the  garden  of 
Eden.  After  another  long  period,  during  which  the 
cycle  of  further  descent  into  matter  is  rolling  for- 
ward, the  astral  form  at  last  clothes  itself  with  a 
"coat  of  skin",  and  the  present  physical  form  is  on 
the  scene.  This  is  the  explanation  of  the  verse  of 
the  book  of  Genesis  which  describes  the  giving  of 
coats  of  skin  to  Adam  and  Eve.  It  is  the  final  fall 
into  matter,  for  from  that  point  on  the  man  within 
strives  to  raise  the  whole  mass  of  physical  substance 
up  to  a  higher  level,  and  to  inform  it  all  with  a 
larger  measure  of  spiritual  influence,  so  that  it  may 
be  ready  to  go  still  further  on  during  the  next  great 
period  of  evolution  after  the  present  one  is  ended. 
So  at  the  present  time  the  model  for  the  growing 
child  in  the  womb  is  the  astral  body  already  perfect 
in  shape  before  the  child  is  born.  It  is  on  this  the 
molecules  arrange  themselves  until  the  child  is  com- 
plete, and  the  presence  of  the  ethereal  design- body 
will  explain  how  the  form  grows  into  shape,  how  the 
eyes  push  themselves  out  from  within  to  the  surface 


ORIGIN    OF    BIRTH-MARKS.  41 

of  the  face,  and  many  other  mysterious  matters  in 
embryology  which  are  passed  over  by  medical  men 
with  a  description  but  with  no  explanation.  This  will 
also  explain,  as  nothing  else  can,  the  cases  of  mark- 
ing of  the  child  in  the  womb  sometimes  denied  by 
physicians  but  well-known  by  those  who  care  to 
watch,  to  be  a  fact  of  frequent  occurrence.  The 
growing  physical  form  is  subject  to  the  astral  model ; 
it  is  connected  with  the  imagination  of  the  mother 
by  physical  and  psychical  organs ;  the  mother  makes 
a  strong  picture  from  horror,  fear,  or  otherwise,  and 
the  astral  model  is  then  similarly  affected.  In  the 
case  of  marking  by  being  born  legless,  the  ideas 
and  strong  imagination  of  the  mother  act  so  as  to 
cut  off  or  shrivel  up  the  astral  leg,  and  the  result  is 
that  the  molecules,  having  no  model  of  leg  to  work 
on,  make  no  physical  leg  whatever;  and  similarly  in 
all  such  cases.  But  where  we  find  a  man  who  still 
feels  the  leg  which  the  surgeon  has  cut  off,  or  per- 
ceives the  fingers  that  were  amputated,  then  the  as- 
tral member  has  not  been  interfered  with,  and  hence 
the  man  feels  as  if  it  were  still  on  his  person.  For 
knife  or  acid  will  not  injure  the  astral  model,  but  in 
the  first  stages  of  its  growth  ideas  and  imagination 
have  the  power  of  acid  and  sharpened  steel. 

In  the  ordinary  man  who  has  not  been  trained  in 
practical  occultism  or  who  has  not  the  faculty  by 
birth,  the  astral  body  cannot  go  more  than  a  few  feet 
from  the  physical  one.  It  is  a  part  of  that  physical, 
it  sustains  it  and  is  incorporated  in  it  just  as  the 
fibres  of  the  mango  are  all  through  that  fruit.  But 
there  are  those  who,  by  reason  of  practices  pursued 
in  former  lives  on  the  earth,  have  a  power  born  with 
them  of  unconsciously  sending  out  the  astral  body. 
These  are  mediums,  some  seers,  and  many  hysteri- 
cal, cataleptic,  and  scrofulous  people.  Those  who 
have  trained  themselves  by  a  long  course  of  exces- 
sively hard  discipline  which  reaches  to  the  moral  and 
mental  nature  and  quite  beyond  the  power  of  the 


42  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

average  man  of  the  day,  can  use  the  astral  form  at 
will,  for  they  have  gotten  completely  over  the  delus- 
ion that  the  physical  body  is  a  permanent  part  of 
them,  and,  besides,  they  have  learned  the  chemical 
and  electrical  laws  governing  in  this  matter.  In 
their  case  they  act  with  knowledge  and  consciously; 
in  the  other  cases  the  act  is  done  without  power  to 
prevent  it,  or  to  bring  it  about  at  will,  or  to  avoid 
the  risks  attendant  on  such  use  of  potencies  in  nat- 
ure of  a  high  character. 

The  astral  body  has  in  it  the  real  organs  of  the 
outer  sense  organs.  In  it  are  the  sight,  hearing, 
power  to  smell,  and  the  sense  of  touch.  It  has  a 
complete  system  of  nerves  and  arteries  of  its  own 
for  the  conveyance  of  the  astral  fluid  which  is  to  that 
body  as  our  blood  is  to  the  physical.  It  is  the  real  per- 
sonal man.  There  are  located  the  subconscious  per- 
ception and  the  latent  memory,  which  the  hypnotizers 
of  the  day  are  dealing  with  and  being  baffled  by.  So 
when  the  body  dies  the  astral  man  is  released,  and 
as  at  death  the  immortal  man — the  Triad — flies  away 
to  another  state,  the  astral  becomes  a  shell  of  the 
once  living  man  and  requires  time  to  dissipate.  It 
retains  all  the  memories  of  the  life  lived  by  the  man, 
and  thus  reflexly  and  automatically  can  repeat  what 
the  dead  man  knew,  said,  thought,  and  saw.  It  re- 
mains near  the  deserted  physical  body  nearly  all  the 
time  until  that  is  completely  dissipated,  for  it  has  to 
go  through  its  own  process  of  dying.  It  may  be- 
come visible  under  certain  conditions.  It  is  the 
spook  of  the  spiritualistic  seance-rooms,  and  is  there 
made  to  masquerade  as  the  real  spirit  of  this  or  that 
individual.  Attracted  by  the  thoughts  of  the  me- 
dium and  the  sitters,  it  vaguely  flutters  where  they 
are,  and  then  is  galvanized  into  a  factitious  life  by  a 
whole  host  of  elemental  forces  and  by  the  active  as- 
tral body  of  the  medium  who  is  holding  the  seance 
or  of  any  other  medium  in  the  audience.  From  it 
(as  from  a  photograph)  are  then  reflected  into  the  me- 


ASTRAL   SHELLS   AND   SPIRITUALISM.  43 

dium's  brain  all  the  boasted  evidences  which  spirit- 
ualists claim  go  to  prove  identity  of  deceased  friend 
or  relative.  These  evidences  are  accepted  as  proof 
that  the  spirit  of  the  deceased  is  present,  because 
neither  mediums  nor  sitters  are  acquainted  with  the 
laws  governing  their  own  nature,  nor  with  the  con- 
stitution, power,  and  function  of  astral  matter  and 
astral  man. 

The  Theosophical  philosophy  does  not  deny  the 
facts  proven  in  spiritualistic  seances,  but  it  gives  an 
explanation  of  them  wholly  opposed  to  that  of  the 
spiritualists.  And  surely  the  utter  absence  of  any 
logical  scientific  explanation  by  these  so-called  spirits 
of  the  phenomena  they  are  said  to  produce  supports 
the  contention  that  they  have  no  knowledge  to  im- 
part. They  can  merely  cause  certain  phenomena; 
the  examination  of  those  and  deductions  therefrom 
can  only  be  properly  carried  on  by  a  trained  brain 
guided  by  a  living  trinity  of  spirit,  soul,  and  mind. 
And  here  another  class  of  spiritualistic  phenomena 
requires  brief  notice.  That  is  the  appearance  of  what 
is  called  a  "materialized  spirit". 

Three  explanations  are  offered:  First,  that  the 
astral  body  of  the  living  medium  detaches  itself  from 
its  corpus  and  assumes  the  appearance  of  the  so- 
called  spirit ;  for  one  of  the  properties  of  the  astral 
matter  is  capacity  to  reflect  an  image  existing  un- 
seen in  ether.  Second,  the  actual  astral  shell  of  the 
deceased — wholly  devoid  of  his  or  her  spirit  and 
conscience — becomes  visible  and  tangible  when  the 
condition  of  air  and  ether  is  such  as  to  so  alter  the 
vibration  of  the  molecules  of  the  astral  shell  that  it 
may  become  visible.  The  phenomena  of  density  and 
apparent  weight  are  explained  by  other  laws.  Third, 
an  unseen  mass  of  electrical  and  magnetic  matter  is 
collected,  and  upon  it  is  reflected  out  of  the  astral 
light  a  picture  of  any  desired  person  either  dead  or 
living.  This  is  taken  to  be  the  "spirit"  of  such 
persons,  but  it  is  not,  and  has  been  justly  called  by 


44  THE   OCEAN    OF   THEOSOPHY. 

H.  P.  Blavatsky  a  "psychological  fraud",  because  it 
pretends  to  be  what  it  is  not.  And,  strange  to  say, 
this  very  explanation  of  materializations  has  been 
given  by  a  "spirit"  at  a  regular  seance,  but  has 
never  been  accepted  by  the  spiritualists  just  because 
it  upsets  their  notion  of  the  return  of  the  spirits  of 
deceased  persons. 

Finally,  the  astral  body  will  explain  nearly  all  the 
strange  psychical  things  happening  in  daily  life  and 
in  dealings  with  genuine  mediums ;  it  shows  what  an 
apparition  may  be  and  the  possibility  of  such  being 
seen,  and  thus  prevents  the  scientific  doubter  from 
violating  good  sense  by  asserting  you  did  not  see 
what  you  know  you  have  seen ;  it  removes  supersti- 
tion by  showing  the  real  nature  of  these  phenomena, 
and  destroys  the  unreasonable  fear  of  the  unknown 
which  makes  a  man  afraid  to  see  a  "ghost".  By  it 
also  we  can  explain  the  apportation  of  objects  with- 
out physical  contact,  for  the  astral  hand  may  be  ex- 
truded and  made  to  take  hold  of  an  object,  drawing 
it  in  toward  the  body.  When  this  is  shown  to  be 
possible,  then  travelers  will  not  be  laughed  at  who 
tell  of  seeing  the  Hindu  yogee  make  coffee  cups  fly 
through  the  air  and  distant  objects  approach  appar- 
ently of  their  own  accord  untouched  by  him  or  any- 
one else.  All  the  instances  of  clairvoyance  and 
clairaudiance  are  to  be  explained  also  by  the  astral 
body  and  astral  light.  The  astral — which  are  the 
real — organs  do  the  seeing  and  the  hearing,  and  as 
all  material  objects  are  constantly  in  motion  among 
their  own  atoms  the  astral  sight  and  hearing  are  not 
impeded,  but  work  at  a  distance  as  great  as  the  ex- 
tension of  the  astral  light  or  matter  around  and  about 
the  earth.  Thus  it  was  that  the  great  seer  Sweden- 
borg  saw  houses  burning  in  the  city  of  Stockholm 
when  he  was  at  another  city  many  miles  off,  and  by 
the  same  means  any  clairvoyant  of  the  day  sees  and 
hears  at  a  distance. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

HE  author  of  Esoteric  Buddhism — which  book 
ought  to  be  consulted  by  all  students  of 
Theosophy,  since  it  was  made  from  sugges- 
tions given  by  some  of  the  Adepts  them- 
selves— gave  the  name  Kama  rupa  to  the  fourth 
principle  of  man's  constitution.  The  reason  was 
that  the  word  Kama  in  the  Sanskrit  language  means 
"desire",  and  as  the  idea  intended  to  be  conveyed 
was  that  the  fourth  principle  was  the  ' '  body  or  mass 
of  desires  and  passions  ",  Mr.  Sinnett  added  the  San- 
skrit word  for  body  or  form,  which  is  Rupa,  thus 
making  the  compound  word  Kamarupa.  I  shall  call 
it  by  the  English  equivalent — passions  and  desires — 
because  those  terms  exactly  express  its  nature.  And 
I  do  this  also  in  order  to  make  the  sharp  issue  which 
actually  exists  between  the  psychology  and  mental 
philosophy  of  the  west  and  those  of  the  east.  The 
west  divides  man  into  intellect,  will,  and  feeling,  but 
it  is  not  understood  whether  the  passions  and  desires 
constitute  a  principle  in  themselves  or  are  due  en- 
tirely to  the  body.  Indeed,  most  people  consider 
them  as  being  the  result  of  the  influence  of  the  flesh, 
for  they  are  designated  often  by  the  terms  ' '  desires 
of  the  flesh  "  and  "fleshly  appetites ".  The  ancients, 
however,  and  the  Theosophists  know  them  to  be  a 
principle  in  themselves  and  not  merely  the  impulses 
from  the  body.  There  is  no  help  to  be  had  in  this 
matter  from  the  western  psychology,  now  in  its  in- 
fancy and  wholly  devoid  of  knowledge  about  the 
inner,  which  is  the  psychical,  nature  of  man,  and 
from  this  point  there  is  the  greatest  divergence  be- 
tween it  and  Theosophy.* 
The  passions  and  desires  are  not  produced  by  the 


46  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

body,  but,  on  the  contrary,  the  body  is  caused  to  be 
by  the  former.  It  is  desire  and  passion  which  caused 
us  to  be  born,  and  will  bring  us  to  birth  again  and 
again  in  this  body  or  in  some  other.  It  is  by  passion 
and  desire  we  are  made  to  evolve  through  the  man- 
sions of  death  called  lives  on  earth.  It  was  by  the 
arising  of  desire  in  the  unknown  first  cause,  the  one 
absolute  existence,  that  the  whole  collection  of  worlds 
was  manifested,  and  by  means  of  the  influence  of  de- 
sire in  the  now  manifested  world  is  the  latter  kept  in 
existence. 

This  fourth  principle  is  the  balance  principle  of 
the  whole  seven.  It  stands  in  the  middle,  and  from 
it  the  ways  go  up  or  down.  It  is  the  basis  of  action 
and  the  mover  of  the  will.  As  the  old  Hermetists 
say:  "Behind  will  stands  desire."  For  whether  we 
wish  to  do  well  or  ill  we  have  to  first  arouse  within 
us  the  desire  for  either  course.  The  good  man  who 
at  last  becomes  even  a  sage  had  at  one  time  in  his 
many  lives  to  arouse  the  desire  for  the  company  of 
holy  men  and  to  keep  his  desire  for  progress  alive  in 
order  to  continue  on  his  way.  Even  a  Buddha  or  a 
Jesus  had  first  to  make  a  vow,  which  is  a  desire,  in 
some  life,  that  he  would  save  the  world  or  some  part 
of  it,  and  to  persevere  with  the  desire  alive  in  his 
heart  through  countless  lives.  And  equally  so,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  bad  man  life  after  life  took  unto  him- 
self low,  selfish,  wicked  desires  thus  debasing  in- 
stead of  purifying  this  principle.  On  the  material 
and  scientific  side  of  occultism,  the  use  of  the  inner 
hidden  powers  of  our  nature,  if  this  principle  of  de- 
sire be  not  strong  the  master  power  of  imagination 
cannot  do  its  work,  because  though  it  makes  a  mould 
or  matrix  the  will  cannot  act  unless  it  is  moved,  di- 
rected, and  kept  up  to  pitch  by  desire. 

The  desires  and  passions,  therefore,  have  two  as- 
pects, the  one  being  low  and  the  other  high.  The 
low  is  that  shown  by  the  constant  placing  of  the  con- 
sciousness entirely  below  in  the  body  and  the  astral 


WHAT    THE    KAMA-RUPA    IS.  47 

body;  the  high  comes  from  the  influence  of  and  as- 
piration to  the  trinity  above,  of  Mind,  Buddhi,  and 
Spirit.  This  fourth  principle  is  like  the  sign  Libra 
in  the  path  of  the  Sun  through  the  Zodiac ;  when  the 
Sun  (who  is  the  real  man)  reaches  that  sign  he  trem- 
bles in  the  balance.  Should  he  go  back  the  worlds 
would  be  destroyed ;  he  goes  onward,  and  the  whole 
human  race  is  lifted  up  to  perfection. 

During  life  the  emplacement  of  the  desires  and 
passions  is,  as  obtains  with  the  astral  body,  through- 
out the  entire  lower  man,  and  like  that  ethereal 
counterpart  of  our  physical  person  it  may  be  added 
to  or  diminished,  made  weak  or  increased  in  strength, 
debased  or  purified. 

At  death  it  informs  the  astral  body,  which  then  be- 
comes a  mere  shell ;  for  when  a  man  dies  his  astral 
body  and  principle  of  passion  and  desire  leave  the 
physical  in  company  and  coalesce.  It  is  then  that 
the  term  Kamarupa  may  be  applied,  as  Kamarupa  is 
really  made  of  astral  body  and  Kama  in  conjunc- 
tion, and  this  joining  of  the  two  makes  a  shape  or 
form  which  though  ordinarily  invisible  is  material 
and  may  be  brought  into  visibility.  Although  it 
is  empty  of  mind  and  conscience,  it  has  powers  of 
its  own  that  can  be  exercised  whenever  the  condi- 
tions permit.  These  conditions  are  furnished  by  the 
medium  of  the  spiritualists,  and  in  every  stance  room 
the  astral  shells  of  deceased  persons  are  always  pres- 
ent to  delude  the  sitters,  whose  powers  of  discrimi- 
nation have  been  destroyed  by  wonderment.  It  is 
the  "devil"  of  the  Hindus,  and  a  worse  enemy  the 
poor  medium  could  not  have.  For  the  astral  spook 
— or  Kamarupa — is  but  the  mass  of  the  desires  and 
passions  abandoned  by  the  real  person  who  has  fled 
to  "heaven"  and  has  no  concern  with  the  people 
left  behind,  least  of  all  with  seances  and  mediums. 
Hence,  being  devoid  of  the  nobler  soul,  these  desires 
and  passions  work  only  on  the  very  lowest  part  of 
the  medium's  nature  and  stir  up  no  good  elements, 


48  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

but  always  the  lower  leanings  of  the  being.  There- 
fore it  is  that  even  the  spiritualists  themselves  admit 
that  in  the  ranks  of  the  mediums  there  is  much  fraud, 
and  mediums  have  often  confessed,  "the  spirits  did 
tempt  me  and  I  committed  fraud  at  their  wish. " 

This  Kamarupa  spook  is  also  the  enemy  of  our 
civilization,  which  permits  us  to  execute  men  for 
crimes  committed  and  thus  throw  out  into  the  ether 
the  mass  of  passion  and  desire  free  from  the  weight 
of  the  body  and  liable  at  any  moment  to  be  attracted 
to  any  sensitive  person.  Being  thus  attracted,  the 
deplorable  images  of  crimes  committed  and  also  the 
picture  of  the  execution  and  all  the  accompanying 
curses  and  wishes  for  revenge  are  implanted  in  living 
persons,  who,  not  seeing  the  evil,  are  unable  to  throw 
it  off.  Thus  crimes  and  new  ideas  of  crimes  are  wil- 
fully propagated  every  day  by  those  countries  where 
capital  punishment  prevails. 

The  astral  shells  together  with  the  still  living  as- 
tral body  of  the  medium,  helped  by  certain  forces  of 
nature  which  the  Theosophists  call  "  elementals  ", 
produce  nearly  all  the  phenomena  of  non-fraudulent 
spiritualism.  The  medium's  astral  body  having  the 
power  of  extension  and  extrusion  forms  the  frame- 
work for  what  are  called  "materialized  spirits", 
makes  objects  move  without  physical  contact,  gives 
reports  from  deceased  relatives,  none  of  them  any- 
thing more  than  recollections  and  pictures  from  the 
astral  light,  and  in  all  this  using  and  being  used  by 
the  shells  of  suicides,  executed  murderers,  and  all 
such  spooks  as  are  naturally  near  to  this  plane  of  life. 
The  number  of  cases  in  which  any  communication 
comes  from  an  actual  spirit  out  of  the  body  is  so 
small  as  to  be  countable  almost  on  one  hand.  But 
the  spirits  of  living  men  sometimes,  while  their  bod- 
ies are  asleep,  come  to  stances  and  take  part  therein. 
But  they  cannot  recollect  it,  do  not  know  how  they 
do  it,  and  are  not  distinguished  by  mediums  from 
the  mass  of  astral  corpses.  The  fact  that  such  things 


THE   INNER   MAN    ACTS.  49 

can  be  done  by  the  inner  man  and  not  be  recollected 
proves  nothing  against  these  theories,  for  the  child 
can  see  without  knowing  how  the  eye  acts,  and  the 
savage  who  has  no  knowledge  of  the  complex 
machinery  working  in  his  body  still  carries  on  the 
process  of  digestion  perfectly.  And  that  the  latter 
is  unconscious  with  him  is  exactly  in  line  with  the 
theory,  for  these  acts  and  doings  of  the  inner 
man  are  the  unconscious  actions  of  the  subcon- 
scious mind.  These  words  "conscious"  and  "sub- 
conscious "  are  of  course  used  relatively,  the  uncon- 
sciousness being  that  of  the  brain  only.  And  hyp  - 
notic  experiments  have  conclusively  proved  all  these 
theories,  as  on  one  day  not  far  away  will  be  fully 
admitted.  Besides  this,  the  astral  shells  of  suicides 
and  executed  criminals  are  the  most  coherent,  longest 
lived,  and  nearest  to  us  of  all  the  shades  of  hades, 
and  hence  must,  out  of  the  necessity  of  the  case,  be 
the  real  "controls "  of  the  seance  room. 

Passion  and  desire  together  with  astral  model-body 
are  common  to  men  and  animals,  as  also  to  the 
vegetable  kingdom,  though  in  the  last  but  faintly 
developed.  And  at  one  period  in  evolution  no  fur- 
ther material  principles  had  been  developed,  and  all 
the  three  higher,  of  Mind,  Soul,  and  Spirit,  were 
but  latent.  Up  to  this  point  man  and  animal  were 
equal,  for  the  brute  in  us  is  made  of  the  passions 
and  the  astral  body.  The  development  of  the  germs 
of  Mind  made  man  because  it  constituted  the  great 
differentiation.  The  God  within  begins  with  Manas 
or  mind,  and  it  is  the  struggle  between  this  God  and 
the  brute  below  which  Theosophy  speaks  of  and 
warns  about.  The  lower  principle  is  called  bad 
because  by  comparison  with  the  higher  it  is  so,  but 
still  it  is  the  basis  of  action.  We  cannot  rise  unless 
self  first  asserts  itself  in  the  desire  to  do  better.  In 
this  aspect  it  is  called  rajas  or  the  active  and  bad 
quality,  as  distinguished  from  famas,  or  the  quality 
of  darkness  and  indifference.  Rising  is  not  possible 


50  THE   OCEAN    OF   THEOSOPHY. 

unless  rajas  is  present  to  give  the  impulse,  and  by 
the  use  of  this  principle  of  passion  all  the  higher 
qualities  are  brought  to  at  last  so  refine  and  elevate 
our  desires  that  they  may  be  continually  placed  upon 
truth  and  spirit.  By  this  Theosophy  does  not  teach 
that  the  passions  are  to  be  pandered  to  or  satiated, 
for  a  more  pernicious  doctrine  was  never  taught,  but 
the  injunction  is  to  make  use  of  the  activity  given  by 
the  fourth  principle  so  as  to  ever  rise  and  not  to  fall 
under  the  dominion  of  the  dark  quality  that  ends 
with  annihilation,  after  having  begun  in  selfishness 
and  indifference. 

Having  thus  gone  over  the  field  and  shown  what 
are  the  lower  principles,  we  find  Theosophy  teacfiing 
that  at  the  the  present  point  of  man's  evolution  he  is 
a  fully  developed  quaternary  with  the  higher  princi- 
ples partly  developed.  Hence  it  is  taught  that 
to-day  man  shows  himself  to  be  moved  by  passion 
and  desire.  This  is  proved  by  a  glance  at  the  civi- 
lizations of  the  earth,  for  they  are  all  moved  by  this 
principle,  and  ,in  countries  like  France,  England,  and 
America  a  glorification  of  it  is  exhibited  in  the  atten- 
tion to  display,  to  sensuous  art,  to  struggle  for  power 
and  place,  and  in  all  the  habits  and  modes  of  living 
where  the  gratification  of  the  senses  is  sometimes 
esteemed  the  highest  good.  But  as  Mind  is  being 
evolved  more  and  more  as  we  proceed  in  our  course 
along  the  line  of  the  race  development,  there  can  be 
perceived  underneath  in  all  countries  the  beginning 
of  the  transition  from  the  animal  possessed  of  the 
germ  of  real  mind  to  the  man  of  mind  complete. 
This  day  is  therefore  known  to  the  Masters,  who 
have  given  out  some  of  the  old  truths,  as  the  ' '  tran- 
sition period  ".  Proud  science  and  prouder  religion 
do  not  admit  this,  but  think  we  are  as  we  always  will 
be.  But  believing  in  his  teacher,  the  theosophist 
sees  all  around  him  the  evidence  that  the  race  mind 
is  changing  by  enlargement,  that  the  old  days  of 
dogmatism  are  gone  and  the  "age  of  inquiry"  has 


THE   END   OF   DOGMATISM.  51 

come,  that  the  inquiries  will  grow  louder  year  by 
year  and  the  answers  be  required  to  satisfy  the  mind 
as  it  grows  more  and  more,  until  at  last,  all  dogma- 
tism being  ended,  the  race  will  be  ready  to  face  all 
problems,  each  man  for  himself,  all  working  for  the 
good  of  the  whole,  and  that  the  end  will  be  the  per- 
fecting of  those  who  struggle  to  overcome  the  brute. 
For  these  reasons  the  old  doctrines  are  given  out 
again,  and  Theosophy  asks  every  one  to  reflect 
whether  to  give  way  to  the  animal  below  or  look  up 
to  and  be  governed  by  the  God  within. 

A  fuller  treatment  of  the  fourth  principle  of  our 
constitution  would  compel  us  to  consider  all  such 
questions  as  those  presented  by  the  wonder  workers 
of  the  east,  by  spiritualistic  phenomena,  hypnotism, 
apparitions,  insanity,  and  the  like,  but  they  must  be 
reserved  for  separate  handling. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

N  our  analysis  of  man's  nature  we  have  so 
far  considered  only  the  perishable  elements 
which  make  up  the  lower  man,  and  have 
arrived  at  the  fourth  principle  or  plane — 
that  of  desire — without  having  touched  upon  the 
question  of  Mind.  But  even  so  far  as  we  have  gone 
it  must  be  evident  that  there  is  a  wide  difference  be- 
tween the  ordinary  ideas  about  Mind  and  those  found 
in  Theosophy.  Ordinarily  the  Mind  is  thought  to  be 
immaterial,  or  to  be  merely  the  name  for  the  action 
of  the  brain  in  evolving  thought,  a  process  wholly 
unknown  other  than  by  inference,  or  that  if  there  be 
no  brain  there  can  be  no  mind.  A  good  deal  of  at- 
tention has  been  paid  to  cataloguing  some  mental 
functions  and  attributes,  but  the  terms  are  altogether 
absent  from  the  language  to  describe  actual  meta- 
physical and  spiritual  facts  about  man.  This  con- 
fusion and  poverty  of  words  for  these  uses  are  due 
almost  entirely,  first,  to  dogmatic  religion,  which 
has  asserted  and  enforced  for  many  centuries  dogmas 
and  doctrines  which  reason  could  not  accept,  and  sec- 
ondly to  the  natural  war  which  grew  up  between 
science  and  religion  just  as  soon  as  the  fetters  placed 
by  religion  upon  science  were  removed  and  the  latter 
was  permitted  to  deal  with  facts  in  nature.  The  re- 
action against  religion  naturally  prevented  science 
from  taking  any  but  a  materialistic  view  of  man  and 
nature.  So  from  neither  of  these  two  have  we  yet 
gained  the  words  needed  for  describing  the  fifth, 
sixth,  and  seventh  principles,  those  which  make  up 
the  Trinity,  the  real  man,  the  immortal  pilgrim. 

The  fifth  principle  is  Manas,  in  the  classification 
adopted  by  Mr.  Sinnett,  and  is  usually  translated 


THE    ORIGIN    OF    MIND.  53 

Mind.  Other  names  have  been  given  to  it,  but  it  is 
the  knower,  the  perceiver,  the  thinker.  The  sixth 
is  Buddhi,  or  spiritual  discernment;  the  seventh  is 
Atma,  or  Spirit,  the  ray  from  the  Absolute  Being. 
The  English  language  will  suffice  to  describe  in  part 
what  Manas  is,  but  not  Buddhi,  or  Atma,  and  will 
leave  many  things  relating  to  Manas  undescribed. 

The  course  of  evolution  developed  the  lower  prin- 
ciples and  produced  at  last  the  form  of  man  with  a 
brain  of  better  and  deeper  capacity  than  that  of  any 
other  animal.  But  this  man  in  form  was  not  man  in 
mind,  and  needed  the  fifth  principle,  the  thinking, 
perceiving  one,  to  differentiate  him  from  the  animal 
kingdom  and  to  confer  the  power  of  becoming  self- 
conscious.  The  monad  was  imprisoned  in  these  forms, 
and  that  monad  is  composed  of  Atma  and  Buddhi;  for 
without  the  presence  of  the  monad  evolution  could 
not  go  forward.  Going  back  for  a  moment  to  the 
time  when  the  races  were  devoid  of  mind,  the  ques- 
tion arises,  "who  gave  the  mind,  where  did  it  come 
from,  and  what  is  it?"  It  is  the  link  between  the 
Spirit  of  God  above  and  the  personal  below ;  it  was 
given  to  the  mindless  monads  by  others  who  had 
gone  all  through  this  process  ages  upon  ages  before 
in  other  worlds  and  systems  of  worlds,  and  it  there- 
fore came  from  other  evolutionary  periods  which 
were  carried  out  and  completed  long  before  the  solar 
system  had  begun.  This  is  the  theory,  strange  and 
unacceptable  to-day,  but  which  must  be  stated  if  we 
are  to  tell  the  truth  about  theosophy ;  and  this  is  only 
handing  on  what  others  have  said  before. 

The  manner  in  which  this  light  of  mind  was  given 
to  the  Mindless  Men  can  be  understood  from  the  il- 
lustration of  one  candle  lighting  many.  Given  one 
lighted  candle  and  numerous  unlighted  ones,  it  fol- 
lows that  from  one  light  the  others  may  also  be  set 
aflame.  So  in  the  case  of  Manas.  It  is  the  candle  of 
flame.  The  mindless  men  having  four  elementary 
principles  of  Body,  Astral  Body,  Life  and  Desire, 


54  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

are  the  unlighted  candles  that  cannot  light  them- 
selves. The  Sons  of  Wisdom,  who  are  the  Elder 
Brothers  of  every  family  of  men  on  any  globe, 
have  the  light,  derived  by  theni  from  others  who 
reach  back,  and  yet  farther  back,  in  endless  proces- 
sion with  no  beginning  or  end.  They  set  fire  to  the 
combined  lower  principles  and  the  Monad,  thus  light- 
ing up  Manas  in  the  new  men  and  preparing  another 
great  race  for  final  initiation.  This  lighting  up  of 
the  fire  of  Manas  is  symbolized  in  all  great  religions 
and  Freemasonry.  In  the  east  one  priest  appears 
holding  a  candle  lighted  at  the  altar,  and  thousands 
of  others  light  their  candles  from  this  one.  The 
Parsees  also  have  their  sacred  fire  which  is  lighted 
from  some  other  sacred  flame. 

Manas,  or  the  Thinker,  is  the  reincarnating  being, 
the  immortal  who  carries  the  results  and  values  of 
all  the  different  lives  lived  on  earth  or  elsewhere. 
Its  nature  becomes  dual  as  soon  as  it  is  attached  to  a 
body.  For  the  human  brain  is  a  superior  organ- 
ism and  Manas  uses  it  to  reason  from  premises  to 
conclusions.  This  also  differentiates  man  from  ani- 
mal, for  the  animal  a6ls  from  automatic  and  so- 
called  instinctual  impulses,  whereas  the  man  can  use 
reason.  This  is  the  lower  aspect  of  the  Thinker  or 
Manas,  and  not,  as  some  have  supposed,  the  highest 
and  best  gift  belonging  to  man.  Its  other,  and  in 
theosophy  higher,  aspect  is  the  intuitional,  which 
knows,  and  does  not  depend  on  reason.  The  lower, 
and  purely  intellectual,  is  nearest  to  the  principle  of 
Desire,  and  is  thus  distinguished  from  its  other  side 
which  has  affinity  for  the  spiritual  principles  above. 
If  the  Thinker,  then,  becomes  wholly  intellectual,  the 
entire  nature  begins  to  tend  downward ;  for  intellect 
alone  is  cold,  heartless,  selfish,  because  it  is  not  lighted 
up  by  the  two  other  principles  of  Buddhi  and  Atma. 

In.  Manas  the  thoughts  of  all  lives  are  stored. 
That  is  to  say :  in  any  one  life,  the  sum  total  of 
thoughts  underlying  all  the  acts  of  the  life-time  will 


THE   REGISTER   OF   THOUGHTS.  55 

be  of  one  character  in  general,  but  may  be  placed  in 
in  one  or  more  classes.  That  is,  the  business  man  of 
to-day  is  a  single  type;  his  entire  life  thoughts  rep- 
resent but  one  single  thread  of  thought.  The  artist 
is  another.  The  man  who  has  engaged  in  business, 
but  also  thought  much  upon  fame  and  power  which 
he  never  attained,  is  still  another.  The  great  mass 
of  self-sacrificing,  courageous,  and  strong  poor  people 
who  have  but  little  time  to  think,  constitute  another 
distinct  class.  In  all  these  the  total  quantity  of  life 
thoughts  makes  up  the  stream  or  thread  of  a  life's 
meditation — "  that  upon  which  the  heart  was  set  " — 
and  is  stored  in  Manas,  to  be  brought  out  again  at  any 
time  in  whatever  life  the  brain  and  bodily  environ- 
ments are  similar  to  those  used  in  engendering  that 
class  of  thoughts. 

It  is  Manas  which  sees  the  objects  presented  to  it 
by  the  bodily  organs  and  the  actual  organs  within. 
When  the  open  eye  receives  a  picture  on  the  retina, 
the  whole  scene  is  turned  into  vibrations  in  the  optic 
nerves  which  disappear  into  the  brain,  where  Manas 
is  enabled  to  perceive  them  as  idea.  And  so  with 
every  other  organ  or  sense.  If  the  connection 
between  Manas  and  the  brain  be  broken,  intelligence 
will  not  be  manifested  unless  Manas  has  by  training 
found  out  how  to  project  the  astral  body  from  the 
physical  and  thereby  keep  up  communication  with 
fellowmen.  That  the  organs  and  senses  do  not  cog- 
nize objects,  hypnotism,  mesmerism,  and  spiritualism 
have  now  proved.  For,  as  we  see  in  mesmeric  and 
hypnotic  experiments,  the  object  seen  or  felt,  and 
from  which  all  the  effects  of  solid  objects  may  be 
sensed,  is  often  only  an  idea  existing  in  the  opera- 
tor's brain.  In  the  same  way  Manas,  using  the 
astral  body,  has  only  to  impress  an  idea  upon  the 
other  person  to  make  the  latter  see  the  idea  and 
translate  it  into  a  visible  body  from  which  the  usual 
effects  of  density  and  weiglit  seem  to  follow.  And 
in  hypnotism  there  areT  many  experiments,  all  of 


56  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

which  go  to  show  that  so  called  matter  is  not  per  se 
solid  or  dense;  that  sight  does  not  always  depend 
on  the  eye  and  rays  of  light  proceeding  from  an 
object;  that  the  intangible  for  one  normal  brain  and 
organs  may  be  perfectly  tangible  for  another;  and 
that  physical  effects  in  the  body  may  be  produced 
from  an  idea  solely.  The  well-known  experiments 
of  producing  a  blister  by  a  simple  piece  of  paper,  or 
preventing  a  real  blistering  plaster  from  making  a 
blister,  by  force  of  the  idea  conveyed  to  a  subject, 
either  that  there  was  to  be  or  not  to  be  a  blister, 
conclusively  prove  the  power  of  effecting  an  impulse 
on  matter  by  the  use  of  tha^  which  is  called  Manas. 
But  all  these  phenomena  are  the  exhibition  of  the 
powers  of  lower  Manas  acting  in  the  astral  Body  and 
the  fourth  principle — Desire,  using  the  physical  body 
as  the  field  for  the  exhibition  of  the  forces. 

It  is  this  lower  Manas  which  retains  all  the  impres- 
sions of  a  life-time  and  sometimes  strangely  exhibits 
them  in  trances  or  dreams,  delirium,  induced  states, 
here  and  there  in  normal  conditions,  and  very  often 
at  the  time  of  physical  death.  But  it  is  so  occupied 
with  the  brain,  with  memory  and  with  sensation,  that 
it  usually  presents  but  few  recollections  out  of  the 
mass  of  events  that  years  have  brought  before  it. 
It  interferes  with  the  action  of  Higher  Manas  because 
just  at  the  present  point  of  evolution,  Desire  and  all 
corresponding  powers,  faculties,  and  senses  are  the 
most  highly  developed,  thus  obscuring,  as  it  were, 
the  white  light  of  the  spiritual  side  of  Manas.  It  is 
tinted  by  each  object  presented  to  it,  whether  it  be 
a  thought- object  or  a  material  one.  That  is  to  say, 
Lower  Manas  operating  through  the  brain  is  at  once 
altered  into  the  shape  and  other  characteristics  of 
any  object,  mental  or  otherwise.  This  causes  it  to 
have  four  peculiarities.  First,  to  naturally  fly  off 
from  any  point,  object,  or  subject;  second,  to  fly  to 
some  pleasant  idea;  third,  to  fly  to  an  unpleasant 
idea;  fourth,  to  remain  passive  and  considering 


GENIUS:  THE  HIGHER  AND  DIVINE  SELF.          57 

naught.  The  first  is  due  to  memory  and  the  natural 
motion  of  Manas;  the  second  and  third  are  due  to 
memory  alone;  the  fourth  signifies  sleep  when  not 
abnormal,  and  when  abnormal  is  going  toward  insan- 
ity. These  mental  characteristics  all  belonging  to 
Lower  Manas,  are  those  which  the  Higher  Manas, 
aided  by  Buddhi  and  Atma,  has  to  fight  and  conquer. 
Higher  Manas,  if  able  to  act,  becomes  what  we  some- 
times call  Genius ;  if  completely  master,  then  one  may 
become  a  god.  But  memory  continually  presents 
pictures  to  Lower  Manas,  and  the  result  is  that  the 
Higher  is  obscured.  Sometimes,  however,  along  the 
pathway  of  life  we  do  see  here  and  there  men  who 
are  geniuses  or  great  seers  and  prophets.  In  these 
the  Higher  powers  of  Manas  are  active  and  the  per- 
son illuminated.  Such  were  the  great  Sages  of  the 
past,  men  like  Buddha,  Jesus,  Confucius,  Zoroaster, 
and  others.  Poets,  too,  such  as  Tennyson,  Long- 
fellow, and  others,  are  men  in  whom  Higher  Manas 
now  and  then  sheds  a  bright  ray  on  the  man  below, 
to  be  soon  obscured,  however,  by  the  effect  of  dog- 
matic religious  education  which  has  given  memory 
certain  pictures  that  always  prevent  Manas  from 
gaining  full  activity. 

In  this  higher  Trinity,  we  have  the  God  above 
each  one ;  this  is  Atm'a,  and  may  be  called  the  Higher 
Self. 

Next  is  the  spiritual  part  of  the  soul  called  Buddhi; 
when  thoroughly  united  with  Manas  this  may  be 
called  the  Divine  Ego. 

The  inner  Ego,  who  reincarnates,  taking  on  body 
after  body,  storing  up  the  impressions  of  life  after  life, 
gaining  experience  and  adding  it  to  the  divine  Ego, 
suffering  and  enjoying  through  an  immense  period 
of  years,  is  the  fifth  principle — Manas — not  united  to 
Buddhi.  This  is  the  permanent  individuality  which 
gives  to  every  man  the  feeling  of  being  himself  and 
not  some  other;  that  which  through  all  the  changes 
of  the  days  and  nights  from  youth  to  the  end  of  life 


$8  THE   OCEAN    OF   THEOSOPHY. 

makes  us  feel  one  identity  through  all  the  period;  ii 
bridges  the  gap  made  by  sleep;  in  like  manner  it 
bridges  the  gap  made  by  the  sleep  of  death.  It  is 
this,  and  not  our  brain,  that  lifts  us  above  the  animal. 
The  depth  and  variety  of  the  brain  convolutions  in 
man  are  caused  by  the  presence  of  Manas,  and  are 
not  the  cause  of  mind.  And  when  we  either  wholly 
or  now  and  then  become  consciously  united  with  Bud- 
dhi,  the  Spiritual  Soul,  we  behold  God,  as  it  were. 
This  is  what  the  ancients  all  desired  to  see,  but  what 
the  moderns  do  not  believe  in,  the  latter  preferring 
rather  to  throw  away  their  own  right  to  be  great  in 
nature,  and  to  worship  an  imaginary  god  made  up 
solely  of  their  own  fancies  and  not  very  different 
from  weak  human  nature. 

This  permanent  individuality  in  the  present  race 
has  therefore  been  through  every  sort  of  experience, 
for  Theosophy  insists  on  its  permanence  and  in  the 
necessity  for  its  continuing  to  take  part  in  evolution. 
It  has  a  duty  to  perform,  consisting  in  raising  up  to  a 
higher  state  all  the  matter  concerned  in  the  chain  of 
globes  to  which  the  earth  belongs.  We  have  all  lived 
and  taken  part  in  civilization  after  civilization,  race 
after  race,  on  earth,  and  will  so  continue  throughout 
all  the  rounds  and  races  until  the  seventh  is  com- 
plete. At  the  same  time  it  should  be  remembered 
that  the  matter  of  this  globe  and  that  connected  with 
it  has  also  been  through  every  kind  of  form,  with 
possibly  some  exceptions  in  very  low  planes  of  min- 
eral formation.  But  in  general  all  the  matter  visible, 
or  held  in  space  still  unprecipitated,  has  been  moulded 
at  one  time  or  another  into  forms  of  all  varieties, 
many  of  these  being  such  as  we  now  have  no  idea  of. 
The  processes  of  evolution,  therefore,  in  some  de- 
partments, now  go  forward  with  greater  rapidity 
than  in  former  ages  because  both  Manas  and  matter- 
have  acquired  facility  of  action.  Especially  is  this 
so  in  regard  to  man,  who  is  the  farthest  ahead  of  all 
things  or  beings  in  this  evolution.  He  is  now  incar- 


THE   CAUSE   OF   REBIRTH.  59 

nated  and  projected  into  life  more  quickly  than  in 
earlier  periods  when  it  consumed  many  years  to  ob- 
tain a  ** coat  of  skin".  This  coming  into  life  over 
and  over  again  cannot  be  avoided  by  the  ordinary 
man  because  Lower  Manas  is  still  bound  by  Desire, 
which  is  the  preponderating  principle  at  the  present 
period. '  Being  so  influenced  by  Desire  Manas  is  con- 
tinually deluded  while  in  the  body,  and  being  thus 
deluded  is  unable  to  prevent  the  action  upon  it  of  the 
forces  set  up  in  the  life  time.  These  forces  are  gen- 
erated by  Manas,  that  is,  by  the  thinking  of  the  life, 
time.  Each  thought  makes  a  physical  as  well  as 
mental  link  with  the  desire  in  which  it  is  rooted. 
All  life  is  filled  with  such  thoughts,  .and  when  the 
period  of  rest  after  death  is  ended  Manas  is  bound 
by  innumerable  electrical  magnetic  threads  to  earth 
by  reason  of  the  thoughts  of  the  last  life,  and  there- 
fore by  desire,  for  it  was  desire  that  caused  so  many 
thoughts  and  ignorance  of  the  true  nature  of  things. 
An  understanding  of  this  doctrine  of  man  being  re- 
ally a  thinker  and  made  of  thought  will  make  clear 
all  the  rest  in  relation  to  incarnation  and  reincarna- 
tion. The  body  of  the  inner  man  is  made  of  thought, 
and  this  being  so  it  must  follow  that  if  the  thoughts 
have  more  affinity  for  earth-life  than  for  life  else- 
where a  return  to  life  here  is  inevitable. 

At  the  present  day  Manas  is  not  fully  active  in  the 
race,  as  Desire  still  is  uppermost.  In  the  next  cycle 
of  the  human  period  Manas  will  be  fully  active  and 
developed  in  the  entire  race.  Hence  the  people  of 
the  earth  have  not  yet  come  to  the  point  of  making 
a  conscious  choice  as  to  the  path  they  will  take ;  but 
when  in  the  cycle  referred  to,  Manas  is  active,  all 
will  then  be  compelled  to  consciously  make  the  choice 
to  right  or  left,  the  one  leading  to  complete  and  con- 
scious union  with  Atma,  the  other  to  the  annihilation 
of  those  beings  who  prefer  that  path. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

OW  man  has  come  to  be  the  complex"  being 
that  he  is  and  why,  are  questions  that 
neither  Science  nor  Religion  makes  conclu- 
sive answer  to.  This  immortal  thinker 
having  such  vast  powers  and  possibilities,  all  his 
because  of  his  intimate  connection  with  every  secret 
part  of  Nature  from  which  he  has  been  built  up, 
stands  at  the  top  of  an  immense  and  silent  evolu- 
tion. He  asks  why  Nature  exists,  what  the  drama 
of  life  has  for  its  aim,  how  that  aim  may  be  attained. 
But  Science  and  Religion  both  fail  to  give  a  reason- 
able reply.  Science  does  not  pretend  to  be  able  to 
give  the  solution,  saying  that  the  examination  of 
things  as  they  are  is  enough  of  a  task;  religion 
offers  an  explanation  both  illogical  and  unmeaning 
and  acceptable  but  to  the  bigot,  as  it  requires  us  to 
consider  the  whole  of  Nature  as  a  mystery  and  to 
seek  for  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  life  with  all  its. 
sorrow  in  the  pleasure  of  a  God  who  cannot  be 
found  out.  The  educated  and  enquiring  mind  knows 
that  dogmatic  religion  can  only  give  an  answer  inven- 
ted by  man  while  it  pretends  to  be  from  God. 

What  then  is  the  universe  for,  and  for  what  final 
purpose  is  man  the  immortal  thinker  here  in  evolu- 
tion? It  is  all  for  the  experience  and  emancipation 
of  the  soul,  for  the  purpose  of  raising  the  entire  mass 
of  manifested  matter  up  to  the  stature,  nature,  and 
dignity  of  conscious  god -hood.  The  great  aim  is  to 
reach  self-consciousness;  not  through  a  race  or  a 
tribe  or  some  favored  nation,  but  by  and  through 
the  perfecting,  after  transformation,  of  the  whole 
mass  of  matter  as  well  as  what  we  now  call  soul. 
Nothing  is  or  is  to  be  left  out.  The  aim  for  present 


THE  OBJECT  OF  EVOLUTION.  6l 

man  is  his  initiation  into  complete  knowledge,  and 
for  the  other  kingdoms  below  him  that  they  may  be 
raised  up  gradually  from  stage  to  stage  to  be  in  time 
initiated  also.  This  is  evolution  carried  to  its  highest 
power ;  it  is  a  magnificent  prospect ;  it  makes  of  man 
a  god,  and  gives  to  every  part  of  nature  the  possi- 
bility of  being  one  day  the  same ;  there  is  strength 
and  nobility  in  it,  for  by  this  no  man  is  dwarfed  and 
belittled,  for  no  one  is  so  originally  sinful  that  he 
cannot  rise  above  all  sin.  Treated  from  the  materi- 
alistic position  of  Science,  evolution  takes  in  but 
half  of  life ;  while  the  religious  conception  of  it  is  a 
mixture  of  nonsense  and  fear.  Present  religions 
keep  the  element  of  fear,  and  at  the  same  time  ima- 
gine that  an  Almighty  being  can  think  of  no  other 
earth  but  this  and  has  to  govern  this  one  very  imper- 
fectly. But  the  old  theosophical  view  makes  the  uni- 
verse a  vast,  complete,  and  perfe<5l  whole. 

Now  the  moment  we  postulate  a  double  evolution, 
physical  and  spiritual,  we  have  at  the  same  time  to 
admit  that  it  can  only  be  carried  on  by  reincarnation. 
This  is,  in  fact,  demonstrated  by  science.  It  is 
shown  that  the  matter  of  the  earth  and  of  all  things 
physical  upon  it  was  at  one  time  either  gaseous  or 
molten ;  that  it  cooled ;  that  it  altered ;  that  from  its 
alterations  and  evolutions  at  last  were  produced  all 
the  great  variety  of  things  and  beings.  This,  on  the 
physical  plane,  is  transformation  or  change  from  one 
form  to  another.  The  total  mass  of  matter  is  about 
the  same  as  in  the  beginning  of  this  globe,  with  a  very 
minute  allowance  for  some  star  dust.  Hence  it  must 
have  been  changed  over  and  over  again,  and  thus 
been  physically  reformed  and  reembodied.  Of  course, 
to  be  strictly  accurate,  we  cannot  use  the  word  rein- 
carnation, because  "incarnate"  refers  to  flesh.  Let  us 
say  '  'reembodied, "  and  then  we  see  that  both  for  mat- 
ter and  for  man  there  has  been  a  constant  change  of 
form  and  this  is,  broadly  speaking,  *  'reincarnation." 
As  to  the  whole  mass  of  matter,  the  doctrine  is  that  it 


62  THE    OCEAN    OF   THEOSOPHY. 

will  all  be  raised  to  man's  estate  when  man  has  gone 
further  on  himself.  There  is  no  residuum  left  after 
man's  final  salvation  which  in  a  mysterious  way  is  to 
be  disposed  of  or  done  away  with  in  some  remote  dust- 
heap  of  nature.  The  true  dodlrine  allows  for  noth- 
ing like  that,  and  at  the  same  time  is  not  afraid  to 
give  the  true  disposition  of  what  would  seem  to  be  a 
residuum.  It  is  all  worked  up  into  other  states,  for 
as  the  philosophy  declares  there  is  no  inorganic  mat- 
ter whatever  but  that  every  atom  is  alive  and  has 
the  germ  of  self-consciousness,  it  must  follow  that 
one  day  it  will  all  have  been  changed.  Thus  what  is 
now  called  human  flesh  is  so  much  matter  that  one 
day  was  wholly  mineral,  later  on  vegetable,  and  now 
refined  into  human  atoms.  At  a  point  of  time 
very  far  from  now  the  present  vegetable  matter 
will  have  been  raised  to  the  animal  stage  and 
what  we  now  use  as  our  organic  or  fleshy  matter  will 
have  changed  by  transformation  through  evolution 
into  self-conscious  thinkers,  and  so  on  up  the  whole 
scale  until  the  time  shall  come  when  what  is  now 
known  as  mineral  matter  will  have  passed  on  to  the 
human  stage  and  out  into  that  of  thinker.  Then  at 
the  coming  on  of  another  great  period  of  evolution 
the  mineral  matter  of  that  time  will  be  some  which 
is  now  passing  through  its  lower  transformations  on 
other  planets  and  in  other  systems  of  worlds.  This 
is  perhaps  a  "fanciful"  scheme  for  the  men  of  the 
present  day,  who  are  so  accustomed  to  being  called 
bad,  sinful,  weak,  and  utterly  foolish  from  their 
birth  that  they  fear  to  believe  the  truth  about  them- 
selves, but  for  the  disciples  of  the  ancient  theoso- 
phists  it  is  not  impossible  or  fanciful,  but  is  logical 
and  vast.  And  no  doubt  it  will  one  day  be  admitted 
by  everyone  when  the  mind  of  the  western  race 
has  broken  away  from  Mosaic  chronology  and  Mo- 
saic ideas  of  men  and  nature.  Therefore  as  to  rein- 
carnation and  metempsychosis  we  say  that  they  are 
first  to  be  applied  to  the  whole  cosmos  and  not  alone 


REINCARNATION    AN    ANCIENT    DOCTRINE.  63 

to  man.  But  as  man  is  the  most  interesting  object 
to  himself,  we  will  consider  in  detail  its  application 
to  him. 

This  is  the  most  ancient  of  doctrines  and  is  be- 
lieved in  now  by  more  human  minds  than  the  num- 
ber of  those  who  do  not  hold  it.  The  millions  in 
the  East  almost  all  accept  it;  it  was  taught  by  the 
Greeks ;  a  large  number  of  the  Chinese  now  believe 
it  as  their  forefathers  did  before  them;  the  Jews 
thought  it  was  true,  and  it  has  not  disappeared  from 
their  religion ;  and  Jesus,  who  is  called  the  founder 
of  Christianity,  also  believed  and  taught  it.  In  the 
early  Christian  church  it  was  known  and  taught,  and 
the  very  best  of  the  fathers  of  the  church  believed 
and  promulgated  it. 

Christians  should  remember  that  Jesus  was  a  Jew 
who  thought  his  mission  was  to  Jews,  for  he  says  in 
St.  Matthew,  ' '  I  am  not  sent  but  unto  the  lost  sheep 
of  the  house  of  Israel  ".  He  must  have  well  known 
the  doctrines  held  by  them.  They  all  believed  in 
reincarnation.  For  them  Moses,  Adam,  Noah, 
Seth,  and  others  had  returned  to  earth,  and  at  the 
time  of  Jesus  it  was  currently  believed  that  the  old 
prophet  Elias  was  yet  to  return.  So  we  find,  first, 
that  Jesus  never  denied  the  doctrine,  and  on  various 
occasions  assented  to  it,  as  when  he  said  that  John 
the  Baptist  was  actually  the  Elias  of  old  whom  the 
people  were  expecting.  All  this  can  be  seen  by  con- 
sulting St.  Matthew  in  chapters  xvn,  xi,  and  others. 

In  these  it  is  very  clear  that  Jesus  is  shown  as  ap- 
proving the  doctrine  of  reincarnation.  And  follow- 
ing Jesus  we  find  St.  Paul,  in  Romans  ix,  speaking 
of  Esau  and  Jacob  being  actually  in  existence  before 
they  were  born,  and  later  such  great  Christian  fathers 
as  Origen,  Synesius,  and  others  believing  and  teach- 
ing the  theory.  In  Proverbs  vm,  22,  we  have  Solo- 
mon saying  that  when  the  earth  was  made  he  was 
present,  and  that,  long  before  he  could  have  been 
born  as  Solomon,  his  delights  were  in  the  habitable 


64  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

parts  of  the  earth  with  the  sons  of  men.  St.  John 
the  Revelator  says  in  Revs,  in,  12,  he  was  told  in  a 
vision  which  refers  to  the  voice  of  God  or  the  voice 
of  one  speaking  for  God,  that  whosoever  should 
overcome  would  not  be  under  the  necessity  of  "going 
out "  any  more,  that  is,  would  not  need  to  be  rein- 
carnated. For  five  hundred  years  after  Jesus  the 
doctrine  was  taught  in  the  church  until  the  council 
of  Constantinople.  Then  a  condemnation  was 
passed  upon  a  phase  of  the  question  which  has  been 
regarded  by  many  as  against  reincarnation,  but  if 
that  condemnation  goes  against  the  words  of  Jesus 
it  is  of  no  effe<5t.  It  does  go  against  him,  and  thus 
the  church  is  in  the  position  ot  saying  in  effect  that 
Jesus  did  not  know  enough  to  curse,  as  it  did,  a 
doctrine  known  and  taught  in  his  day  and  which  was 
brought  to  his  notice  prominently  and  never  con- 
demned but  in  fact  approved  by  him.  Christianity 
is  a  Jewish  religion,  and  this  doctrine  of  reincarna- 
tion belongs  to  it  historically  by  succession  from  the 
Jews,  and  also  by  reason  of  its  having  been  taught 
by  Jesus  and  the  early  fathers  of  the  church.  If 
there  be  any  truthful  or  logical  way  for  the  Christian 
church  to  get  out  of  this  position — excluding,  of 
course,  dogmas  of  the  church — the  theosophist 
would  like  to  be  shown  it.  Indeed,  the  theosophist 
holds  that  whenever  a  professed  Christian  denies  the 
theory  he  thereby  sets  up  his  judgment  against  that 
of  Jesus,  who  must  have  known  more  about  the 
matter  than  those  who  follow  him.  It  is  the  anathema 
hurled  by  the  church  council  and  the  absence  of  the 
doctrine  from  the  teaching  now  that  have  damaged 
Christianity  and  made  of  all  the  Christian  nations 
people  who  pretend  to  be  followers  of  Jesus  and  the 
law  of  love,  but  who  really  as  nations  are  followers 
of  the  Mosaic  law  of  retaliation.  For  alone  in  rein- 
carnation is  the  answer  to  all  the  problems  of  life, 
and  in  it  and  Karma  is  the  force  that  will  make  men 
pursue  in  fact  the  ethics  they  have  in  theory.  It  is 


WHO   AND    WHAT    REINCARNATES.  65 

the  aim  of  the  old  philosophy  to  restore  this  doctrine 
to  whatsoever  religion  has  lost  it ;  and  hence  we  call 
it  the  "lost  chord  of  Christianity". 

But  who  or  what  is  it  that  reincarnates?  It  is  not 
the  body,  for  that  dies  and  disintegrates;  and  but 
few  of  us  would  like  to  be  chained  forever  to  such 
bodies  as  we  now  have,  admitted  to  be  infected  with 
disease  except  in  the  case  of  the  savage.  It  is  not 
the  astral  body,  for,  as  shown,  that  also  has  its  term 
and  must  go  to  pieces  after  the  physical  has  gone. 
Nor  is  it  the  passions  and  desires.  They,  to  be  sure, 
have  a  very  long  term,  because  they  have  the  power 
to  reproduce  themselves  in  each  life  so  long  as  we 
do  not  eradicate  them.  And  reincarnation  provides 
for  that,  since  we  are  given  by  it  many  opportunities 
of  slowly,  one  by  one,  killing  off  the  desires  and 
passions  which  mar  the  heavenly  picture  of  the 
spiritual  man. 

It  has  been  shown  how  the  passional  part  of  us 
coalesces  with  the  astral  after  death  and  makes  a 
seeming  being  that  has  a  short  life  to  live  while  it  is 
disintegrating.  When  the  separation  is  complete  be- 
tween the  body  that  has  died,  the  astral  body,  and 
the  passions  and  desires — life  having  begun  to  busy 
itself  with  other  forms — the  Higher  Triad,  Manas, 
Buddhi,  and  Atma,  who  are  the  real  man,  immediately 
go  into  another  state,  and  when  that  state,  which  is 
called  Devachan,  or  heaven,  is  over,  they  are  attrac- 
ted back  to  earth  for  reincarnation.  They  are  the 
immortal  part  of  us ;  they,  in  fact,  and  no  other  are 
we.  This  should  be  firmly  grasped  by  the  mind,  for 
upon  its  clear  understanding  depends  the  compre- 
hension of  the  entire  doctrine.  What  stands  in  the 
way  of  the  modern  western  man's  seeing  this  clearly 
is  the  long  training  we  have  all  had  in  materialistic 
science  and  materializing  religion,  both  of  which 
have  made  the  mere  physical  body  too  prominent. 
The  one  has  taught  of  matter  alone  and  the  other 
has  preached  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  a  doctrine 


60  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

against  common  sense,  fact,  logic,  and  testimony 
But  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  theory  of  the  bodily 
resurrection  has  arisen  from  the  corruption  of  the 
older  and  true  teaching.  Resurrection  is  founded 
on  what  Job  says  about  seeing  his  redeemer  in  his 
flesh,  and  on  St.  Paul's  remark  that  the  body  was 
raised  incorruptible.  But  Job  was  an  Egyptian  who 
spoke  of  seeing  his  teacher  or  initiator,  who  was 
the  redeemer,  and  Jesus  and  Paul  referred  to  the 
spiritual  body  only. 

Although  reincarnation  is  the  law  of  nature,  the 
complete  trinity  of  Atma-Buddhi- Manas  does  not  yet 
fully  incarnate  in  this  race.  They  use  and  occupy 
the  body  by  means  of  the  entrance  of  Manas,  the 
lowest  of  the  three,  and  the  other  two  shine  upon  it 
from  above,  constituting  the  God  in  Heaven.  This 
was  symbolized  in  the  old  Jewish  teaching  about  the 
Heavenly  Man  who  stands  with  his  head  in  heaven 
and  his  feet  in  hell.  That  is,  the  head  Atma  and 
Buddhi  are  yet  in  heaven,  and  the  feet,  Manasy  walk 
in  hell,  which  is  the  body  and  physical  life.  For 
that  reason  man  is  not  yet  fully  conscious,  and  reincar- 
nations are  needed  to  at  last  complete  the  incarnation 
of  the  whole  trinity  in  the  body.  When  that  has 
been  accomplished  the  race  will  have  become  as  gods, 
and  the  godlike  trinity  being  in  full  possession  the 
entire  mass  of  matter  will  be  perfected  and  raised  up 
for  the  next  step.  This  is  the  real  meaning  of  "the 
word  made  flesh  ".  It  was  so  grand  a  thing  in  the 
case  of  any  single  person,  such  as  Jesus  or  Buddha, 
as  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  divine  incarnation.  And 
out  of  this,  too,  comes  the  idea  of  the  crucifixion, 
for  Manas  is  thus  crucified  for  the  purpose  of  raising 
up  the  thief  to  paradise. 

It  is  because  the  trinity  is  not  yet  incarnate  in  the 
race  that  life  has  so  many  mysteries,  some  of  which 
are  showing  themselves  from  day  to  day  in  all  the 
various  experiments  made  on  and  in  man. 

The  physician  knows  not  what  life  is  nor  why  the 


NO   REINCARNATION   INTO   ANIMALS.  67 

body  moves  as  it  does,  because  the  spiritual  portion 
is  yet  enshrouded  in  the  clouds  of  heaven ;  the  sci- 
entist is  wandering  in  the  dark,  confounded  and  con- 
fused by  all  that  hypnotism  and  other  strange  things 
bring  before  him,  because  the  conscious  man  is  out 
of  sight  on  the  very  top  of  the  divine  mountain,  thus 
compelling  the  learned  to  speak  of  the  ' '  subconscious 
mind",  the  "latent  personality",  and  the  like;  and 
the  priest  can  give  us  no  light  at  all  because  he  de- 
nies man's  god-like  nature,  reduces  all  to  the  level 
of  original  sin,  and  puts  upon  our  conception  of  God 
the  black  mark  of  inability  to  control  or  manage  the 
creation  without  invention  of  expedients  to  cure 
supposed  errors.  But  this  old  truth  solves  the  riddle 
and  paints  God  and  Nature  in  harmonious  colors. 

Reincarnation  does  not  mean  that  we  go  into  ani- 
mal forms  after  death,  as  is  believed  by  some  Eastern 
peoples.  "Once  a  man  always  a  man"  is  the  saying 
in  the  Great  Lodge.  But  it  would  not  be  too  much 
punishment  for  some  men  were  it  possible  to  con- 
demn them  to  rebirth  in  brute  bodies ;  however  na- 
ture does  not  go  by  sentiment  but  by  law,  and  we,  not 
being  able  to  see  all,  cannot  say  that  the  brutal  man 
is  brute  all  through  his  nature.  And  evolution  hav- 
ing brought  Manas  the  Thinker  and  Immortal  Person 
on  to  this  plane,  cannot  send  him  back  to  the  brute 
which  has  not  Manas. 

By  looking  into  two  explanations  for  the  literal  ac- 
ceptation by  some  people  in  the  East  of  those  laws 
of  Manu  which  seem  to  teach  the  transmigrating 
into  brutes,  insects,  and  so  on,  we  can  see  how  the 
true  student  of  this  doctrine  will  not  fall  into  the 
same  error. 

The  first  is,  that  the  various  verses  and  books 
teaching  such  transmigration  have  to  do  with  the 
actual  method  of  reincarnation,  that  is,  with  the  ex- 
planation of  the  actual  physical  processes  which  have 
to  be  undergone  by  the  Ego  in  passing  from  the  un- 
embodied  to  the  embodied  state,  and  also  with  the 


68  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

roads,  ways,  or  means  of  descent  from  the  invisible 
to  the  visible  plane.  This  has  not  yet  been  plainly 
explained  in  Theosophical  books,  because  on  the  one 
hand  it  is  a  delicate  matter,  and  on  the  other  the  de- 
tails would  not  as  yet  be  received  even  by  Theoso- 
phists  with  credence,  although  one  day  they  will  be. 
And  as  these  details  are  not  of  the  greatest  import- 
ance they  are  not  now  expounded.  But  as  we  know 
that  no  human  body  is  formed  without  the  union  of 
the  sexes,  and  that  the  germs  for  such  production 
are  locked  up  in  the  sexes  and  must  come  from  food 
which  is  taken  into  the  body,  it  is  obvious  that  foods 
have  something  to  do  with  the  reincarnating  of  the 
Ego.  Now  if  the  road  to  reincarnation  leads  through 
certain  food  and  none  other,  it  may  be  possible  that 
if  the  Ego  gets  entangled  in  food  which  will  not 
lead  to  the  germ  of  physical  reproduction,  a  punish- 
ment is  indicated  where  Manu  says  that  such  and 
such  practices  will  lead  to  transmigration,  which  is 
then  a  "hindrance".  I  throw  this  out  so  far  for  the 
benefit  of  certain  theosophists  who  read  these  and 
whose  theories  on  this  subject  are  now  rather  vague 
and  in  some  instances  based  on  quite  other  hypotheses. 
The  second  explanation  is,  that  inasmuch  as  nature 
intends  us  to  use  the  matter  which  comes  into  our 
body  and  astral  body  for  the  purpose,  among  others, 
of  benefitting  the  matter  by  the  impress  it  gets  from 
association  with  the  human  Ego,  if  we  use  it  so  as  to 
give  it  only  a  brutal  impression  it  must  fly  back  to 
the  animal  kingdom  to  be  absorbed  there  instead  of 
being  refined  and  kept  on  the  human  plane.  And 
as  all  the  matter  which  the  human  Ego  gathered  to 
it  retains  the  stamp  or  photographic  impression  of 
the  human  being,  the  matter  transmigrates  to  the 
lower  level  when  given  an  animal  impress  by  the 
Ego.  This  actual  fact  in  the  great  chemical  labora- 
tory of  nature  could  easily  be  misconstrued  by  the 
ignorant.  But  the  present-day  students  know  that 
once  Manas  the  Thinker  has  arrived  on  the  scene  he 


THE  DOOR  SHUT   BELOW  US.  69 

does  not  return  to  baser  forms;  first,  because  he 
does  not  wish  to,  and  second,  because  he  cannot. 
For  just  as  the  blood  in  the  body  is  prevented  by 
valves  from  rushing  back  and  engorging  the  heart. 
SO  in  this  greater  system  of  universal  circulation  the 
door  is  shut  behind  the  Thinker  and  prevents  his 
retrocession.  Reincarnation  as  a  doctrine  applying 
to  the  real  man  does  not  teach  transmigration  into 
kingdoms  of  nature  below  the  human. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

N  the  West,  where  the  object  of  life  is  com- 
mercial, financial,  social,  or  scientific  suc- 
cess, that  is,  personal  profit,  aggrandize- 
ment, and  power,  the  real  life  of  man 
receives  but  little  attention,  and  we,  unlike  the  Ori- 
entals, give  scant  prominence  to  the  doctrine  of 
preexistence  and  reincarnation.  That  the  church 
denies  it  is  enough  for  many;  with  whom  no  argu- 
ment is  of  any  use.  Relying  on  the  church,  they  do 
not  wish  to  disturb  the  serenity  of  their  faith  in  dog- 
mas that  may  be  illogical ;  and  as  they  have  been 
taught  that  the  church  can  bind  them  in  hell,  a  blind 
fear  of  the  anathema  hurled  at  reincarnation  in  the 
Constantinople  council  about  500  A.D.,  would  alone 
debar  them  from  accepting  the  accursed  theory. 
And  the  church  in  arguing  on  the  doctrine  urges 
the  objection  that  if  men  are  convinced  that  they 
will  live  many  lives,  the  temptation  to  accept  the 
present  and  do  evil  without  check  will  be  too 
strong.  Absurd  as  this  seems,  it  is  put  forward  by 
learned  Jesuits,  who  say  men  will  rather  have  the 
present  chance  than  wait  for  others.  If  there  were 
no  retribution  at  all  this  would  be  a  good  objection, 
but  as  Nature  has  also  a  Nemesis  for  every  evil  doer, 
and  as  each,  under  the  law  of  Karma — which  is  that 
of  cause  and  effect  and  perfect  justice — must  receive 
the  exact  consequences  himself  in  every  life  for  what 
good  or  bad  deeds  and  thoughts  he  did  and  had  in 
other  lives,  the  basis  for  moral  conduct  is  secure. 
It  is  safe  under  this  system,  since  no  man  can  by  any 
possibility,  or  favor,  or  edict,  or  belief  escape  the  con- 
sequences, and  each  one  who  grasps  this  doctrine 
will  be  moved  by  conscience  and  the  whole  power  of 


RECOGNITION   IN    HEAVEN.  7 1 

nature  to  do  well  in  order  that  he  may  receive  good 
and  become  happy. 

It  is  maintained  that  the  idea  of  rebirth  is  uncon- 
genial and  unpleasant  because  on  the  one  hand  it  is 
cold,  allowing  no  sentiment  to  interfere,  prohibiting 
us  from  renouncing  at  will  a  life  which  we  have  found 
to  be  sorrowful ;  and  on  the  other,  that  there  appears 
to  be  no  chance  under  it  for  us  to  see  our  loved  ones 
who  have  passed  away  before  us.  But  whether  we 
like  it  or  not  Nature's  laws  go  forward  unerringly, 
and  sentiment  or  feeling  can  in  no  way  avert  the 
consequence  that  must  follow  a  cause.  If  we  eat 
bad  food  bad  results  must  come.  The  glutton  would 
have  Nature  permit  him  to  gorge  himself  without 
the  indigestion  which  will  come,  but  Nature's  laws 
are  not  to  be  thus  put  aside.  Now,  the  objection  to 
reincarnation  that  we  will  not  see  our  loved  ones  in 
heaven  as  promised  in  dogmatic  religion,  presup- 
poses a  complete  stoppage  of  the  evolution  and  devel- 
opment of  those  who  leave  earth  before  ourselves, 
and  also  assumes  that  recognition  is  dependent  on 
physical  appearance.  But  as  we  progress  in  this 
life,  so  also  must  we  progress  upon  leaving  it,  and  it 
would  be  unfair  to  compel  the  others  to  await  our 
arrival  in  order  that  we  may  recognize  them.  And 
if  one  reflects  on  the  natural  consequences  of  arising 
to  heaven  where  all  trammels  are  cast  off,  it  must 
be  apparent  that  those  who  have  been  there,  say, 
twenty  of  mortal  years  before  us  must,  in  the  nature 
of  things  mental  and  spiritual,  have  made  a  progress 
equal  to  many  hundreds  of  years  here  under  varied 
and  very  favorable  circumstances.  How  then  could 
we,  arriving  later  and  still  imperfect,  be  able  to  re- 
cognize those  who  had  been  perfecting  themselves 
in  heaven  with  such  advantages?  And  as  we  know 
that  the  body  is  left  behind  to  disintegrate,  so,  it  is 
evident,  recognition  cannot  depend,  in  the  spiritual 
and  mental  life,  on  physical  appearance.  For  not 
only  is  this  thus  plain,  but  since  we  are  aware  that 


72  THE    OCEAN    OF   THEOSOPHY. 

an  unhandsome  or  deformed  body  often  enshrines  a 
glorious  mind  and  pure  soul,  and  that  a  beautifully 
formed  exterior — such  as  in  the  case  of  the  Borgias — 
may  hide  an  incarnate  devil  in  character,  the  physi- 
cal form  gives  no  guarantee  of  recognition  in  that 
world  where  the  .body  is  absent  And  the  mother 
who  has  lost  a  child  who  had  grown  to  maturity  must 
know  that  she  loved  the  child  when  a  baby  as  much 
as  afterwards  when  the  great  alteration  to  later  life 
had  completely  swept  away  the  form  and  features  of 
early  youth.  The  Theosophists  see  that  this  objec- 
tion can  have  no  existence  in  the  face  of  the  eternal 
and  pure  life  of  the  soul.  And  Theosophy  also 
teaches  that  those  who  are  like  unto  each  other  and 
love  each  other  will  be  reincarnated  together  when- 
ever the  conditions  permit.  Whenever  one  of  us 
has  gone  farther  on  the  road  to  perfection,  he  will 
always  be  moved  to  help  and  comfort  those  who  be- 
long to  the  same  family.  But  when  one  has  become 
gross  and  selfish  and  wicked,  no  one  would  want  his 
companionship  in  any  life.  Recognition  depends 
on  the  inner  sight  and  not  on  outward  appearance ; 
hence  there  is  no  force  in  this  objection.  And  the 
other  phase  of  it  relating  to  loss  of  parent,  child,  or 
relative  is  based  on  the  erroneous  notion  that  as  the 
parents  give  the  child  its  body  so  also  is  given  its 
soul.  But  soul  is  immortal  and  parentless;  hence 
this  objection  is  without  a  root. 

Some  urge  that  Heredity  invalidates  Reincarna- 
tion. We  urge  it  as  proof.  Heredity  in  giving  us 
a  body  in  any  family  provides  the  appropriate  envi- 
ronment for  the  Ego.  The  Ego  only  goes  into  the 
family  which  either  completely  answers  to  its  whole 
nature,  or  which  gives  an  opportunity  for  the  work- 
ing out  of  its  evolution,  and  which  is  also  connected 
with  it  by  reason  of  past  incarnations  or  causes 
mutually  set  up.  Thus  the  evil  child  may  come  to 
the  presently  good  family  because  parents  and  child 
are  indissolubly  connected  by  past  actions.  It  is  a 


HEREDITY    A    LIMITATION.  73 

chance  for  redemption  to  the  child  and  the  occasion 
of  punishment  to  the  parents.  This  points  to  bodily 
heredity  as  a  natural  rule  governing-  the  bodies  we 
must  inhabit,  just  as  the  houses  in  a  city  will  show 
the  mind  of  the  builders.  And  as  we  as  well  as  our 
parents  were  the  makers  and  influencers  of  bodies, 
took  part  in  and  are  responsible  for  states  of  society 
in  which  the  development  of  physical  body  and 
brain  was  either  retarded  or  helped  on,  debased  or 
the  contrary,  so  we  are  in  this  life  responsible  for 
the  civilization  in  which  we  now  appear.  But  when 
we  look  at  the  characters  in  human  bodies,  great 
inherent  differences  are  seen.  This  is  due  to  the 
soul  inside,  who  is  suffering  or  enjoying  in  the  fam- 
ily, nation,  and  race  his  own  thoughts  and  acts  in 
the  past  lives  have  made  it  inevitable  he  should 
incarnate  with. 

Heredity  provides  the  tenement  and  also  imposes 
those  limitations  of  capacity  of  brain  or  body  which 
are  often  a  punishment  and  sometimes  a  help,  but  it 
does  not  affect  the  real  Ego.  The  transmission  of 
traits  is  a  physical  matter,  and  nothing  more  than 
the  coming  out  into  a  nation  of  the  consequences  of 
the  prior  lives  of  all  Egos  who  are  to  be  in  that  race. 
The  limitations  imposed  on  the  Ego  by  any  family 
heredity  are  exact  consequences  of  that  Ego's  prior 
lives.  The  fact  that  such  physical  traits  and  mental 
peculiarities  are  transmitted  does  not  confute  reincar- 
nation, since  we  know  that  the  guiding  mind  and 
real  character  of  each  are  not  the  result  of  a  body 
and  brain  but  are  peculiar  to  the  Ego  in  its  essential 
life.  Transmission  of  trait  and  tendency  by  means 
of  parent  and  body  is  exactly  the  mode  selected  by 
nature  for  providing  the  incarnating  Ego  with  the 
proper  tenement  in  which  to  carry  on  its  work.  An- 
other mode  would  be  impossible  and  subversive  of 
order. 

Again,  those  who  dwell  on  the  objection  from 
heredity  forget  that  they  are  accentuating  similarit- 


74  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

ies  and  overlooking  divergencies.  For  while  inves* 
tigations  on  the  line  of  heredity  have  recorded  many 
transmitted  traits,  they  have  not  done  so  in  respect 
to  divergencies  from  heredity  vastly  greater  in  num- 
ber. Every  mother  knows  that  the  children  of  a 
family  are  as  different  in  character  as  the  fingers  on 
one  hand — they  are  all  from  the  same  parents,  but 
all  vary  in  character  and  capacity. 

But  heredity  as  the  great  rule  and  as  a  complete 
explanation  is  absolutely  overthrown  by  history, 
which  shows  no  constant  transmission  of  learning, 
power,  and  capacity.  For  instance,  in  the  case  of 
the  ancient  Egyptians  long  gone  and  their  line  of 
transmission  shattered,  we  have  no  transmission  to 
their  descendants.  If  physical  heredity  settles  the 
question  of  character,  how  has  the  great  Egyptian 
character  been  lost?  The  same  question  holds  in 
respect  to  other  ancient  and  extinct  nations.  And 
taking  an  individual  illustration  we  have  the  great 
musician  Bach,  whose  direct  descendants  showed  a 
decrease  in  musical  ability  leading  to  its  final  disap- 
pearance from  the  family  stock.  But  Theosophy 
teaches  that  in  both  of  these  instances — as  in  all  like 
them — the  real  capacity  and  ability  have  only  disap- 
peared from  a  family  and  national  body,  but  are  re- 
tained in  the  Egos  who  once  exhibited  them,  being 
now  incarnated  in  some  other  nation  and  family  of 
the  present  time. 

Suffering  comes  to  nearly  all  men,  and  a  great 
many  live  lives  of  sorrow  from  the  cradle  to  the 
grave,  so  it  is  objected  that  reincarnation  is  unjust 
because  we  suffer  for  the  wrong  done  by  some  other 
person  in  another  life.  This  objection  is  based  on 
the  false  notion  that  the  person  in  the  other  life 
was  some  one  else.  But  in  every  life  it  is  the  same 
person.  When  we  come  again  we  do  not  take  up 
the  body  of  some  one  else,  nor  another's  deeds,  but 
are  like  an  actor  who  plays  many  parts,  the  same 
actor  inside  though  the  costumes  and  the  lines  re- 


MEMORY   NOT  ESSENTIAL  TO  JUSTICE.  75 

cited  differ  in  each  new  play.  Shakespeare  was 
right  in  saying  that  life  is  a  play,  for  the  great  life 
of  the  soul  is  a  drama,  and  each  new  life  and  re- 
birth another  act  in  which  we  assume  another  part 
and  put  on-  a  new  dress,  but  all  through  it  we  are 
the  self-same  person.  So  instead  of  its  being  unjust, 
it  is  perfect  justice,  and  in  no  other  manner  could 
justice  be  preserved. 

But,  it  is  said,  if  we  reincarnate  how  is  it  that  we 
do  not  remember  the  other  life ;  and  further,  as  we 
cannot  remember  the  deeds  for  which  we  suffer  is  it 
not  unjust  for  that  reason?  Those  who  ask  this  al- 
ways ignore  the  fact  that  they  also  have  enjoyment 
and  reward  in  life  and  are  content  to  accept  them 
without  question.  For  if  it  is  unjust  to  be  punished 
for  deeds  we  do  not  remember,  then  it  is  also  inequi- 
table to  be  rewarded  for  other  acts  which  have  been 
forgotten.  Mere  entry  into  life  is  no  fit  foundation 
for  any  reward  or  punishment.  Reward  and  punish- 
ment must  be  the  just  desert  for  prior  conduct. 
Nature's  law  of  justice  is  not  imperfect,  and  it  is 
only  the  imperfection  of  human  justice  that  requires 
the  offender  to  know  and  remember  in  this  life  a 
deed  to  which  a  penalty  is  annexed.  In  the  prior 
life  the  doer  was  then  quite  aware  of  what  he  did, 
and  nature  affixes  consequences  to  his  acts,  being 
thus  just.  We  well  know  that  she  will  make  the  ef- 
fect follow  the  cause  whatever  we  wish  and  whether 
we  remember  or  forget  what  we  did.  If  a  baby  is 
hurt  in  its  first  years  by  the  nurse  so  as  to  lay  the 
ground  for  a  crippling  disease  in  after  life,  as  is  often 
the  case,  the  crippling  disease  will  come  although 
the  child  neither  brought  on  the  present  cause  nor 
remembered  aught  about  it.  But  reincarnation,  with 
its  companion  doctrine  of  Karma,  rightly  understood, 
shows  how  perfectly  just  the  whole  scheme  of  na- 
ture is. 

Memory  of  a  prior  life  is  not  needed  to  prove  that 
we  passed  through  that  existence,  nor  is  the  fact  of 


76  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

not  remembering  a  good  objection.  We  forget  the 
greater  part  of  the  occurrences  of  the  years  and 
days  of  this  life,  but  no  one  would  say  for  that 
reason  we  did  not  go  through  these  years.  They 
were  lived,  and  we  retain  but  little  of  the  details  in 
the  brain,  but  the  entire  effect  of  them  on  the  char- 
acter is  kept  and  made  a  part  of  ourselves.  The 
whole  mass  of  detail  of  a  life  is  preserved  in  the 
inner  man  to  be  one  day  fully  brought  back  to  the 
conscious  memory  in  some  other  life  when  we  are 
perfected.  And  even  now,  imperfect  as  we  are  and 
little  as  we  know,  the  experiments  in  hypnotism 
show  that  all  the  smallest  details  are  registered  in 
what  is  for  the  present  known  as  the  sub-conscious 
mind.  The  theosophical  doctrine  is  that  not  a  sin- 
gle one  of  these  happenings  is  forgotten  in  fact,  and  at 
the  end  of  life  when  the  eyes  are  closed  and  those 
about  say  we  are  dead  every  thought  and  circum- 
stance of  life  flash  vividly  into  and  across  the  mind. 

Many  persons  do,  however,  remember  that  they 
have  lived  before.  Poets  have  sung  of  this,  chil- 
dren know  it  well,  until  the  constant  living  in  an 
atmosphere  of  unbelief  drives  the  recollection  from 
their  minds  for  the  present,  but  all  are  subject  to  the 
limitations  imposed  upon  the  Ego  by  the  new  brain 
in  each  life.  This  is  why  we  are  not  able  to  keep 
the  pictures  of  the  past,  whether  of  this  life  or  the 
preceding  ones.  The  brain  is  the  instrument  for  the 
memory  of  the  soul,  and,  being  new  in  each  life 
with  but  a  certain  capacity,  the  Ego  is  only  able  to 
use  it  for  the  new  life  up  to  its  capacity.  That  capac- 
ity will  be  fully  availed  of  or  the  contrary,  just  ac- 
cording to  the  Ego's  own  desire  and  prior  conduct, 
because  such  past  living  will  have  increased  or  dimin- 
ished its  power  to  overcome  the  forces  of  material 
existence. 

By  living  according  to  the  dictates  of  the  soul  the 
brain  may  at  least  be  made  porous  to  the  soul's 
recollections;  if  the  contrary  sort  of  a  life  is  led, 


INCREASE  OR  DECREASE  OF  POPULATION.  77 

then  more  and  more  will  clouds  obscure  that  remini- 
scence. But  as  the  brain  had  no  part  in  the  life  last 
lived,  it  is  in  general  unable  to  remember.  And 
this  is  a  wise  law,  for  we  should  be  very  miserable  if 
the  deeds  and  scenes  of  our  former  lives  were  not 
hidden  from  our  view  until  by  discipline  we  become 
able  to  bear  a  knowledge  of  them. 

Another  objection  brought  up  is  that  under  the 
dodlrine  of  reincarnation  it  is  not  possible  to  account 
for  the  increase  of  the  world's  population.  This  as- 
sumes that  we  know  surely  that  its  population  has 
increased  and  are  keeping  informed  of  its  fluctu- 
ations. But  it  is  not  certain  that  the  inhabitants  of 
the  globe  have  increased,  and,  further,  vast  numbers 
of  people  are  annually  destroyed  of  whom  we  know 
nothing.  In  China  year  after  year  many  thousands 
have  been  carried  off  by  flood.  Statistics  of  famine 
have  not  been  made.  We  do  not  know  by  how  many 
thousands  the  deaths  in  Africa  exceed  the  births  in 
any  year.  The  objection  is  based  on  imperfect 
tables  which  only  have  to  do  with  western  lands. 
It  also  assumes  that  there  are  fewer  Egos  out  of 
incarnation  and  waiting  to  come  in  than  the  number 
of  those  inhabiting  bodies,  and  this  is  incorrect.  Annie 
Besant  has  put  this  well  in  her  "  Reincarnation  "  by 
saying  that  the  inhabited  globe  resembles  a  hall  in  a 
town  which  is  filled  from  the  much  greater  popula- 
tion of  the  town  outside;  the  number  in  the  hall 
may  vary,  but  there  is  a  constant  source  of  supply 
from  the  town.  It  is  true  that  so  far  as  concerns 
this  globe  the  number  of  Egos  belonging  to  it  is 
definite ;  but  no  one  knows  what  that  quantity  is  nor 
what  is  the  total  capacity  of  the  earth  for  sustaining 
them.  The  statisticians  of  the  day  are  chiefly  in  the 
West,  and  their  tables  embrace  but  a  small  section 
of  the  history  of  man.  They  cannot  say  how  many 
persons  were  incarnated  on  the  earth  at  any  prior 
date  when  the  globe  was  full  in  all  parts,  hence  the 
quantity  of  egos  willing  or  waiting  to  be  reborn  is 


78  THE  OCEAN  OF  THEOSOPHY. 

unknown  to  the  men  of  to-day.  The  Masters  of  the- 
osophical  knowledge  say  that  the  total  number  of 
such  egos  is  vast,  and  for  that  reason  the  supply  of 
those  for  the  occupation  of  bodies  to  be  born  over 
and  above  the  number  that  die  is  sufficient.  Then 
too  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  each  ego  for  itself 
varies  the  length  of  stay  in  the  post-mortem  states. 
They  do  not  reincarnate  at  the  same  interval,  but 
come  out  of  the  state  after  death  at  different  rates, 
and  whenever  there  occurs  a  great  number  of  deaths 
by  war,  pestilence,  or  famine,  there  is  at  once  a  rush 
of  souls  to  incarnation,  either  in  the  same  place  or  in 
some  other  place  or  race.  The  earth  is  so  small  a 
globe  in  the  vast  assemblage  of  inhabitable  planets 
there  is  a  sufficient  supply  of  Egos  for  incarnation 
here.  But  with  due  respe<5t  to  those  who  put  this 
objection,  I  do  not  see  that  it  has  the  slightest  force. 
or  any  relation  to  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  rein- 
carnation. 


CHAPTER  X. 

NLESS  we  deny  the  immortality  of  man  and 
the  existence  of  soul,  there  are  no  sound 
arguments  against  the  doctrine  of  preexis- 
tence  and  re-birth  save  such  as  rest  on  the 
Jictum  of  the  church  that  each  soul  is  a  new  creation. 
This  dictum  can  be  supported  only  by  blind  dogma- 
tism, for  given  a  soul  we  must  sooner  or  later  arrive 
at  the  theory  of  re-birth,  because  even  if  each  soul 
is  new  on  this  earth  it  must  keep  on  living  some- 
where after  passing  away,  and  in  view  of  the  known 
order  of  nature  will  have  other  bodies  in  other  plan- 
ets or  spheres.  Theosophy  applies  to  the  self — the 
thinker — the  same  laws  which  are  seen  everywhere 
in  operation  throughout  nature,  and  those  are  all 
varieties  of  the  great  law  that  effects  follow  causes 
and  no  effect  is  without  a  cause.  The  soul's  immor- 
tality— believed  in  by  the  mass  of  humanity — de- 
mands embodiment  here  or  elsewhere,  and  to  be 
embodied  means  reincarnation.  If  we  come  to  this 
earth  for  but  a  few  years  and  then  go  to  some  other, 
the  soul  must  be  embodied  there  as  well  as  here, 
and  if  we  have  travelled  from  some  other  world  we 
must  have  had  there  too  our  proper  vesture.  The 
powers  of  mind  and  the  laws  governing  its  motion, 
its  attachment,  and  its  detachment  as  given  in  theo- 
sophical  philosophy  show  that  its  reembodiment 
must  be  here,  where  it  moved  and  worked,  until  such 
time  as  the  mind  is  able  to  overcome  the  forces  which 
chain  it  to  this  globe.  To  permit  the  involved  entity 
to  transfer  itself  to  another  scene  of  action  before 
it  had  overcome  all  the  causes  drawing  it  here  and 
without  its  having  worked  out  its  responsibilities  to 
other  entities  in  the  same  stream  of  evolution  would 


80  THE  OCEAN  OF  THEOSOPHY. 

be  unjust  and  contrary  to  the  powerful  occult  laws 
and  forces  which  continually  operate  upon  it.  The 
early  Christian  Fathers  saw  this,  and  taught  that  the 
soul  had  fallen  into  matter  and  was  obliged  by  the 
law  of  its  nature  to  toil  upward  again  to  the  place 
from  which  it  came.  They  used  an  old  Greek  hymn 
which  ran  : 

Eternal  Mind,  thy  seedling  spark, 

Through  this  thin  vase  of  clay, 
Athwart  the  waves  of  chaos  dark 

Emits  a  timorous  ray. 
This  mind  enfolding  soul  is  sown, 

Incarnate  germ  in  earth : 
In  pity,  blessed  Lord,  then  own 

What  claims  in  Thee  its  birth. 
Far  forth  from  Thee,  thou  central  fire, 

To  earth's  sad  bondage  cast, 
Let  not  the  trembling  spark  expire ; 

Absorb  thine  own  at  last ! 

Each  human  being  has  a  definite  character  differ- 
ent from  every  other  human  being,  and  masses  of 
beings  aggregated  into  nations  show  as  wholes  that 
the  national  force  and  distinguishing  peculiarities  go 
to  make  up  a  definite  and  separate  national  character. 
These  differences,  both  individual  and  national,  are 
due  to  essential  character  and  not  to  education. 
Even  the  dodtrine  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
should  show  this,  for  the  fitness  cannot  come  from 
nothing  but  must  at  last  show  itself  from  the  coming 
to  the  surface  of  the  actual  inner  character.  And 
as  both  individuals  and  nations  among  those  who 
are  ahead  in  the  struggle  with  nature  exhibit  an  im- 
mense force  in  their  character,  we  must  find  a  place 
and  time  where  the  force  was  evolved.  These, 
Theosophy  says,  are  this  earth  and  the  whole  per- 
iod during  which  the  human  race  has  been  on  the 
planet. 

So,  then,  while  heredity  has  something  to  do  with 
the  difference  in  character  as  to  force  and  morale, 
swaying  the  soul  and  mind  a  little  and  furnishing 
also  the  appropriate  place  for  receiving  reward  and 


DIFFERENCES   OF   CHARACTER    PROVE    REBIRTH.       8 1 

punishment,  it  is  not  the  cause  for  the  essential  na- 
ture shown  by  every  one. 

But  all  these  differences,  such  as  those  shown  by 
babes  from  birth,  by  adults  as  character  comes  forth 
more  and  more,  and  by  nations  in  their  history,  are 
due  to  long  experience  gained  during  many  lives  on 
earth,  are  the  outcome  of  the  soul's  own  evolution. 
A  survey  of  one  short  human  life  gives  no  ground 
for  the  production  of  his  inner  nature.  It  is  needful 
that  each  soul  should  have  all  possible  experience, 
and  one  life  cannot  give  this  even  under  the  best 
conditions.  It  would  be  folly  for  the  Almighty  to 
put  us  here  for  such  a  short  time,  only  to  remove  us 
just  when  we  had  begun  to  see  the  object  of  life  and 
the  possibilities  in  it.  The  mere  selfish  desire  of  a 
person  to  escape  the  trials  and  discipline  of  life  is 
not  enough  to  set  nature's  laws  aside,  so  the  soul 
must  be  reborn  until  it  has  ceased  to  set  in  motion 
the  cause  of  rebirth,  after  having  developed  charac- 
ter up  to  its  possible  limit  as  indicated  by  all  the  va- 
rieties of  human  nature,  when  every  experience  has 
been  passed  through,  and  not  until  all  of  truth  that 
can  be  known  has  been  acquired.  The  vast  dispar- 
ity among  men  in  respect  to  capacity  compels  us,  if 
we  wish  to  ascribe  justice  to  Nature  or  to  God,  to 
admit  reincarnation  and  to  trace  the  origin  of  the 
disparity  back  to  the  past  lives  of  the  Ego.  For 
people  are  as  much  hindered  and  handicapped, 
abused  and  made  the  victims  of  seeming  injustice 
because  of  limited  capacity,  as  they  are  b}  reason 
of  circumstances  of  birth  or  education.  We  see  the 
uneducated  rising  above  circumstances  of  family  and 
training,  and  often  those  born  in  good  families  have 
very  small  capacity ;  but  the  troubles  of  nations  and 
families  arise  f ron  want  of  capacity  more  than  from 
any  other  cause.  And  if  we  consider  savage  races 
only,  there  the  seeming  injustice  is  enormous.  Foi 
many  savages  have  good  actual  brain  capacity  but 
still  are  savage.  This  is  because  the  Ego  in  that 


Sa  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

body  is  still  savage  and  undeveloped,  for  in  contrast 
to  the  savage  there  are  many  civilized  men  with 
small  actual  brain  force  who  are  not  savage  in  na- 
ture because  the  indwelling  Ego  has  had  long  ex- 
perience in  civilization  during  other  lives,  and  being 
a  more  developed  soul  has  power  to  use  the  brain 
instrument  to  its  highest  limit. 

Each  man  feels  and  knows  that  he  has  an  individ- 
uality of  his  own,  a  personal  identity  which  bridges 
over  not  only  the  gaps  made  by  sleep  but  also  those 
sometimes  supervening  on  temporary  lesions  in  the 
brain.  This  identity  never  breaks  from  beginning 
to  end  of  life  in  the  normal  person,  and  only  the 
persistence  and  eternal  character  of  the  soul  will  ac- 
count for  it. 

So,  ever  since  we  began  to  remember,  we  know 
that  our  personal  identity  has  not  failed  us,  no  matter 
how  bad  may  be  our  memory.  This  disposes  of  the 
argument  that  identity  depends  on  recollection,  for 
the  reason  that  if  it  did  depend  alone  on  recollection 
we  should  each  day  have  to  begin  over  again,  as  we 
cannot  remember  the  events  of  the  past  in  detail, 
and  some  nvinds  remember  but  little  yet  feel  their 
personal  identity.  And  as  it  is  often  seen  that  some 
who  remember  the  least  insist  as  strongly  as  the 
others  on  their  personal  identity,  that  persistence  of 
feeling  must  come  from  the  old  and  immortal  soul. 

Viewing  life  and  its  probable  object,  with  all  the 
varied  experience  possible  for  man,  one  must  be 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  a  single  life  is  not 
enough  for  carrying  out  all  that  is  intended  by  Na- 
ture, to  say  nothing  of  what  man  himself  desires  to 
do.  The  scale  of  variety  in  experience  is  enormous. 
There  is  a  vast  range  of  powers  latent  in  man  which 
we  see  may  be  developed  if  opportunity  be  given. 
Knowledge  infinite  in  scope  and  diversity  lies  before 
us,  and  especially  in  these  days  when  special  inves- 
tigation is  the  rule.  We  perceive  that  we  have  high 
aspirations  with  no  time  to  reach  up  to  their  measure, 


ONE   LIFE   INADEQUATE   FOR   DEVELOPMENT.          83 

while  the  great  troop  of  passions  and  desires,  selfish 
motives  and  ambitions,  war  with  us  and  among  them- 
selves, pursuing  us  even  to  the  door  of  death.  All 
these  have  to  be  tried,  conquered,  used,  subdued. 
One  life  is  not  enough  for  all  this.  To  say  that  we 
have  but  one  life  here  with  such  possibilities  put  be- 
fore us  and  impossible  of  development  is  to  make  the 
universe  and  life  a  huge  and  cruel  joke  perpetrated 
by  a  powerful  God  who  is  thus  accused,  by  those 
who  believe  in  a  special  creation  of  souls,  of  tri- 
umphing and  playing  with  puny  man  just  because 
that  man  is  small  and  the  creature  of  the  Almighty. 
A  human  life  at  most  is  seventy  years ;  statistics  re- 
duce this  to  about  forty ;  and  out  of  that  little  re- 
mainder a  large  part  is  spent  in  sleep  and  another 
part  in  childhood.  Thus  in  one  life  it  is  perfectly 
impossible  to  attain  to  the  merest  fraction  of  what 
Nature  evidently  has  in  view.  We  see  many  truths 
vaguely  which  a  life  gives  us  no  time  to  grasp,  and 
especially  is  this  so  when  men  have  to  make  such  a 
struggle  to  live  at  all.  Our  faculties  are  small  or 
dwarfed  or  weak ;  one  life  gives  no  opportunity  to 
alter  this ;  we  perceive  other  powers  latent  in  us  that 
cannot  possibly  be  brought  out  in  such  a  small  space 
of  time ;  and  we  have  much  more  than  a  suspicion 
that  the  extent  of  the  field  of  truth  is  vastly  greater 
than  the  narrow  circle  we  are  confined  to.  It  is  not 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  either  God  or  nature  pro- 
jects us  into  a  body  simply  to  fill  us  with  bitterness 
because  we  can  have  no  other  opportunity  here,  but 
rather  we  must  conclude  that  a  series  of  incarnations 
has  led  to  the  present  condition,  and  that  the  process 
of  coming  here  again  and  again  must  go  on  for  the 
purpose  of  affording  us  the  opportunity  needed. 

The  mere  fact  of  dying  is  not  of  itself  enough  to 
bring  about  development  of  faculties  or  the  elimi- 
nation of  wrong  tendency  and  inclination.  If  we 
assume  that  upon  entering  heaven  we  at  once  ac- 
quire all  knowledge  and  purity,  then  that  state  af- 


84  THE  OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

ter  death  is  reduced  to  a  dead  level  and  life  itself 
with  all  its  discipline  is  shorn  of  every  meaning. 
Some  of  the  churches  teach  of  a  school  of  discipline 
after  death  where  it  is  impudently  stated  that  the 
Apostles  themselves,  well  known  to  be  ignorant 
men,  are  to  be  the  teachers.  This  is  absurd  and  de- 
void of  any  basis  or  reason  in  the  natural  order. 
Besides,  if  there  is  to  be  such  subsequent  discipline, 
why  were  we  projected  into  life  at  all?  And  why 
after  the  suffering  and  the  error  committed  are  we 
taken  from  the  place  where  we  did  our  a<5ts?  The 
only  solution  left  is  in  reincarnation.  We  come  back 
to  earth  because  on  it  and  with  the  beings  upon  it  our 
deeds  were  performed ;  because  it  is  the  only  proper 
place  where  punishment  and  reward  can  be  justly 
meted  out ;  because  here  is  the  only  natural  spot  in 
which  to  continue  the  struggle  toward  perfection, 
toward  the  development  of  the  faculties  we  have 
and  the  destruction  of  the  wickedness  in  us.  Jus- 
tice to  ourselves  and  to  all  other  beings  demands  it, 
for  we  cannot  live  for  ourselves,  and  it  would  be  un- 
just to  permit  some  of  us  to  escape,  leaving  those 
who  were  participants  with  us  to  remain  or  to  be 
plunged  into  a  hell  of  eternal  duration. 

The  persistence  of  savagery,  the  rise  and  decay 
of  nations  and  civilizations,  the  total  extinction  of 
nations,  all  demand  an  explanation  found  nowhere 
but  in  reincarnation.  Savagery  remains  because 
there  are  still  Egos  whose  experience  is  so  limited 
that  they  are  still  savage;  they  will  come  up  into 
higher  races  when  ready.  Races  die  out  because 
the  Egos  have  had  enough  of  the  experience  that 
sort  of  race  gives.  So  we  find  the  red  Indian,  the 
Hottentot,  the  Easter  Islanders,  and  others  as  ex- 
amples of  races  deserted  by  high  Egos  and  as  they 
are  dying  away  other  souls  who  have  had  no  higher 
life  in  the  past  enter  into  the  bodies  of  the  race  to 
go  on  using  them  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  such 
experience  as  the  race  body  will  give.  A  race  could 


EGOS   LEAVE   A    RACE.  85 

not  possibly  arise  and  then  suddenly  go  out.  We  see 
that  such  is  not  the  case,  but  science  has  no  explana- 
tion ;  it  simply  says  that  this  is  the  fact,  that  nations 
decay.  But  in  this  explanation  no  account  is  taken 
of  the  inner  man  nor  of  the  recondite  subtle  and  oc- 
cult laws  that  unite  to  make  a  race.  Theosophy  shows 
that  the  energy  drawn  together  has  to  expend  itself 
gradually,  and  therefore  the  reproduction  of  bodies  of 
the  character  of  that  race  will  go  on,  though  the  Egos 
are  not  compelled  to  inhabit  bodies  of  that  sort  any 
longer  than  while  they  are  of  the  same  development 
as  the  race.  Hence  a  time  comes  when  the  whole 
mass  of  Egos  which  built  up  the  race  leaves  it  for 
another  physical  environment  more  like  themselves. 
The  economy  of  Nature  will  not  permit  the  physical 
race  to  suddenly  fade  away,  and  so  in  the  real  order 
of  evolution  other  and  less  progressed  Egos  come  in 
and  use  the  forms  provided,  keeping  up  the  produc- 
tion of  new  bodies  but  less  and  less  in  number  each 
century.  These  lower  Egos  are  not  able  to  keep  up 
to  the  limit  of  the  capacity  of  the  congeries  of  ener- 
gies left  by  the  other  Egos,  and  so  while  the  new  set 
gains  as  much  experience  as  is  possible  the  race  in 
time  dies  out  after  passing  through  its  decay.  This 
is  the  explanation  of  what  we  may  call  descending 
savagery,  and  no  other  theory  will  meet  the  facts. 
It  has  been  sometimes  thought  by  ethnologists  that 
the  more  civilized  races  kill  off  the  other,  but  the 
fact  is  that  in  consequence  of  the  great  difference 
between  the  Egos  inhabiting  the  old  race  body  and 
the  energy  of  that  body  itself,  the  females  begin  to 
be  sterile,  and  thus  slowly  but  surely  the  number  of 
deaths  exceeds  the  births.  China  itself  is  in  process 
of  decay,  she  being  now  in  the  almost  stationary- 
stage  just  before  the  rush  downward.  Great  civi- 
lizations like  those  of  Egypt  and  Babylon  have  gone 
because  the  souls  who  made  them  have  long  ago 
reincarnated  in  the  great  conquering  nations  of  Eu- 
rope and  the  present  American  continents.  As 


86  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

nations  and  races  they  have  been  totally  reincar- 
nated and  born  again  for  greater  and  higher  pur- 
poses than  ever.  Of  all  the  old  races  the  Aryan 
Indian  alone  yet  remains  as  the  preserver  of  the 
old  doctrines.  It  will  one  day  rise  again  to  its  old 
heights  of  glory. 

The  appearance  of  genuises  and  great  minds  in 
families  destitute  of  these  qualities,  as  well  as  the 
extinction  from  a  family  of  the  genius  shown  by 
some  ancestor,  can  only  be  met  by  the  law  of  re- 
birth. Napoleon  the  First  came  in  a  family  wholly 
unlike  him  in  power  and  force.  Nothing  in  his 
heredity  will  explain  his  character.  He  said  him- 
self, as  told  in  the  Memoirs  of  Prince  Talleyrand, 
that  he  was  Charlemagne.  Only  by  assuming  for 
him  a  long  series  of  lives  giving  the  right  line  of  evo- 
lution or  cause  for  his  mind  and  nature  and  force 
to  be  brought  out,  can  we  have  the  slightest  idea 
why  he  or  any  other  great  genius  appeared  at  all. 
Mozart  when  an  infant  could  compose  orchestral 
score.  This  was  not  due  to  heredity,  for  such  a 
score  is  not  natural,  but  is  forced,  mechanical,  and 
wholly  conventional,  yet  he  understood  it  without 
schooling.  How?  Because  he  was  a  musician  rein- 
carnated, with  a  musical  brain  furnished  by  his  fam- 
ily and  thus  not  impeded  in  his  endeavors  to  show 
forth  his  musical  knowledge.  But  stronger  yet  is 
the  case  of  Blind  Tom,  a  negro  whose  family  could 
not  by  any  possibility  have  a  knowledge  of  the  piano, 
a  modern  instrument,  so  as  to  transmit  that  knowledge 
to  the  atoms  of  his  body,  yet  he  had  great  musical 
power  and  knew  the  present  mechanical  musical  scale 
on  the  piano.  There  are  hundreds  of  examples  like 
these  among  the  many  prodigies  who  have  appeared 
to  the  world's  astonishment.  In  India  there  are 
many  histories  of  sages  born  with  complete  knowl- 
edge of  philosophy  and  the  like,  and  doubtless  in  all 
nations  the  same  can  be  met  with.  This  bringing 
back  of  knowledge  also  explains  instinct,  for  that  is 


INHERENT  IDEAS  AND  INSTINCT.  87 

tlo  more  than  recollection  divisible  into  physical  and 
mental  memory.  It  is  seen  in  the  child  and  the  ani- 
mal, and  is  no  more  than  the  result  of  previous 
experience.  And  whether  we  look  at  tho  new-born 
babe  flinging  out  its  arms  for  self-protection,  or  the 
animal  with  very  strong  instinctual  power,  or  the  bee 
building  a  cell  on  the  rules  of  geometry,  it  is  all  the 
effect  of  reincarnation  acting  either  in  the  mind  or 
physical  cell,  for  under  what  was  first  laid  down  no 
atom  is  devoid  of  life,  consciousness,  and  intelligence 
of  its  own. 

In  the  case  of  the  musician  Bach  we  have  proof 
that  heredity  counts  for  nothing  if  the  Ego  is  not  ad- 
vanced, for  his  genius  was  not  borne  down  his  family 
line ;  it  gradually  faded  out,  finally  leaving  the  fam- 
ily stream  entirely.  So,  too,  the  coming  of  idiots 
or  vicious  children  to  parents  who  are  good,  pure,  or 
highly  intellectual  is  explained  in  the  same  way. 
They  are  cases  where  heredity  is  set  at  nought  by  a 
wholly  bad  or  deficient  Ego. 

And  lastly,  the  fact  that  certain  inherent  ideas  are 
common  to  the  whole  race  is  explained  by  the  sages 
as  due  to  recollection  of  such  ideas,  which  were  im- 
planted in  the  human  mind  at  the  very  beginning  of 
its  evolutionary  career  on  this  planet  by  those  broth- 
ers and  sages  who  learned  their  lessons  and  were 
perfected  in  former  ages  long  before  the  develop- 
ment of  this  globe  began.  No  explanation  for  in- 
herent ideas  is  offered  by  science  that  will  do  more 
than  say,  * '  they  exist ".  These  were  actually  taught 
to  the  mass  of  Egos  who  are  engaged  in  this  earth's 
evolution ;  they  were  imprinted  or  burned  into  their 
natures,  and  always  recollected ;  they  follow  the  Ego 
through  the  long  pilgrimage. 

It  has  been  often  thought  that  the  opposition  to  re- 
incarnation has  been  solely  based  on  prejudice,  when 
not  due  to  a  dogma  which  can  only  stand  when  the 
mind  is  bound  down  and  prevented  from  using  its 
own  powers.  It  is  a  doctrine  the  most  noble  of  all, 


88  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

and  with  its  companion  one  of  Karma,  next  to  be 
considered,  it  alone  gives  the  basis  for  ethics.  There 
is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  the  founder  of  Christ- 
ianity took  it  for  granted  and  that  its  present  absence 
from  that  religion  is  the  reason  for  the  contradiction 
between  the  professed  ethics  of  Christian  nations 
and  their  actual  practises  which  are  so  contrary  to 
the  morals  given  out  by  Jesus. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

ARMA  is  an  unfamiliar  word  for  Western 
ears.  It  is  the  name  adopted  by  Theoso- 
phists  of  the  nineteenth  century  for  one  of 
the  most  important  of  the  laws  of  nature. 
Ceaseless  in  its  operation,  it  bears  alike  upon  planets, 
systems  of  planets,  races,  nations,  families,  and  indi- 
viduals. It  is  the  twin  doctrine  to  reincarnation. 
So  inextricably  interlaced  are  these  two  laws  that  it 
is  almost  impossible  to  properly  consider  one  apart 
from  the  other.  No  spot  or  being  in  the  universe  is 
exempt  from  the  operation  of  Karma,  but  all  are 
under  its  sway,  punished  for  error  by  it  yet  benefi- 
cently led  on,  through  discipline,  rest,  and  reward, 
to  the  distant  heights  of  perfection.  It  is  a  law  so 
comprehensive  in  its  sweep,  embracing  at  once  our 
physical  and  our  moral  being,  that  it  is  only  by  para- 
phrase and  copious  explanation  one  can  convey  its 
meaning  in  English.  For  that  reason  the  Sanscrit 
term  Karma  was  adopted  to  designate  it. 

Applied  to  man's  moral  life  it  is  the  law  of  ethical 
causation,  justice,  reward  and  punishment;  the  cause 
for  birth  and  rebirth,  yet  equally  the  means  for  es- 
cape from  incarnation.  Viewed  from  another  point 
it  is  merely  effect  flowing  from  cause,  a6tion  and  re- 
action, exact  result  for  every  thought  and  act.  It  is 
act  and  the  result  of  act ;  for  the  word's  literal  mean- 
ing is  action.  Theosophy  views  the  Universe  as  an 
intelligent  whole,  hence  every  motion  in  the  Universe 
is  an  action  of  that  whole  leading  to  results,  which 
themselves  become  causes  for  further  results.  View- 
ing it  thus  broadly,  the  ancient  Hindus  said  that  every 
being  up  to  Brahma  was  under  the  rule  of  Karma. 
It  is  not  a  being  but  a  law.  the  universal  law  of 


90  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

harmony  which  unerringly  restores  all  disturbance 
to  equilibrium.  In  this  the  theory  conflicts  with  the 
ordinary  conception  about  God,  built  up  from  the 
Jewish  system,  which  assumes  that  the  Almighty  as 
a  thinking  entity,  extraneous  to  the  Cosmos,  builds 
up,  finds  his  construction  inharmonious,  out  of  pro- 
portion, errant,  and  disturbed,  and  then  has  to  pull 
down,  destroy,  or  punish  that  which  he  created. 
This  has  either  caused  thousands  to  live  in  fear  of 
God,  in  compliance  with  his  assumed  commands, 
with  the  selfish  object  of  obtaining  reward  and  se- 
curing escape  from  his  wrath,  or  has  plunged  them 
into  darkness  which  comes  from  a  denial  of  all  spir- 
itual life.  But  as  there  is  plainly,  indeed  painfully, 
evident  to  every  human  being  a  constant  destruc- 
ion  going  on  in  and  around  us,  a  continual  war  not 
only  among  men  but  everywhere  through  the  whole 
solar  system,  causing  sorrow  in  all  directions,  rea- 
son requires  a  solution  of  the  riddle.  The  poor,  who 
see  no  refuge  or  hope,  cry  aloud  to  a  God  who  makes 
no  reply,  and  then  envy  springs  up  in  them  when 
they  consider  the  comforts  and  opportunities  of  the 
rich.  They  see  the  rich  profligates,  the  wealthy 
fools,  enjoying  themselves  unpunished.  Turning 
to  the  teacher  of  religion,  they  meet  the  reply  to 
their  questioning  of  the  justice  which  will  permit 
such  misery  to  those  who  did  nothing  requiring 
them  to  be  born  with  no  means,  no  opportunities 
for  education,  no  capacity  to  overcome  social,  racial, 
or  circumstantial  obstacles,  "It  is  the  will  of  God". 
Parents  produce  beloved  offspring  who  are  cut  off 
by  death  at  an  untimely  hour,  just  when  all  prom- 
ised well.  They  too  have  no  answer  to  the  question 
"Why  am  I  thus  afflicted?"  but  the  same  unreason- 
able reference  to  an  inaccessible  God  whose  arbitrary 
will  causes  their  misery.  Thus  in  every  walk  of  life, 
loss,  injury,  persecution,  deprivation  of  opportunity, 
nature's  own  forces  working  to  destroy  the  happi- 
ness of  man,  death,  reverses,  disappointment  con- 


BEGONE   ACT    BREEDS   BLISS   OR   WOE.  91 

tinually  beset  good  and  evil  men  alike.  But  no- 
where is  there  any  answer  or  relief  save  in  the  an- 
cient truths  that  each  man  is  the  maker  and  fashioner 
of  his  own  destiny,  the  only  one  who  sets  in  motion 
the  causes  for  his  own  happiness  and  misery.  In 
one  life  he  sows  and  in  the  next  he  reaps.  Thus  on 
and  forever,  the  law  of  Karma  leads  him. 

Karma  is  a  beneficent  law  wholly  merciful,  relent- 
lessly just,  for  true  mercy  is  not  favor  but  impartial 
justice. 

••  My  brothers!  each  man's  life 

The  outcome  of  his  former  living  is ; 
The  bygone  wrongs  bring  forth  sorrows  and  woes, 

The  bygone  right  breeds  bliss.  .  .  . 

This  is  the  doctrine  of  Karma."  ^ 

How  is  the  present  life  affected  by  that  bygone 
right  and  wrong  act,  and  is  it  always  by  way  of  pun- 
ishment? Is  Karma  only  fate  under  another  name, 
an  already  fixed  and  formulated  destiny  from  which 
no  escape  is  possible,  and  which  therefore  might 
make  us  careless  of  act  or  thought  that  cannot  affect 
destiny?  It  is  not  fatalism.  Everything  done  in  a 
former  body  has  consequences  which  in  the  new 
birth  the  Ego  must  enjoy  or  suffer,  for,  as  St. 
Paul  said:  "Brethren,  be  not  deceived.  God  is  not 
mocked,  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall 
he  also  reap. "  For  the  effect  is  in  the  cause,  and 
Karma  produces  the  manifestation  of  it  in  the  body, 
brain,  and  mind  furnished  by  reincarnation.  And 
as  a  cause  set  up  by  one  man  has  a  distinct  relation 
to  him  as  a  centre  from  which  it  came,  so  each 
one  experiences  the  results  of  his  own  acts.  We 
may  sometimes  seem  to  receive  effects  solely  from 
the  acts  of  others,  but  this  is  the  result  of  our  own 
acts  and  thoughts  in  this  or  some  prior  life.  We 
perform  our  acts  in  company  with  others  always,  and 
the  acts  with  their  underlying  thoughts  have  rela- 
tion always  to  other  persons  and  to  ourselves. 

No  act  is  performed  without  a  thought  at  its  root 
either  at  the  time  of  performance  or  as  leading  to  it. 


92  THE   OCEAN    OF   THEOSOPHY. 

These  thoughts  are  lodged  in  that  part  of  man 
which  we  have  called  Manas — the  mind,  and  there 
remain  as  subtle  but  powerful  links  with  magnetic 
threads  that  enmesh  the  solar  system,  and  through 
which  various  effects  are  brought  out.  The  theory 
put  forward  in  earlier  pages  that  the  whole  system 
to  which  this  globe  belongs  is  alive,  conscious  on 
every  plane,  though  only  in  man  showing  self-con- 
sciousness, comes  into  play  here  to  explain  how  the 
thought  under  the  act  in  this  life  may  cause  result 
in  this  or  the  next  birth.  The  marvellous  modern 
experiments  in  hypnotism  show  that  the  slightest 
impression,  no  matter  how  far  back  in  the  history  of 
the  person,  may  be  waked  up  to  life,  thus  proving  it 
is  not  lost  but  only  latent.  Take  for  instance  the 
case  of  a  child  born  humpbacked  and  very  short,  the 
head  sunk  between  the  shoulders,  the  arms  long  and 
legs  curtailed.  Why  is  this?  His  karma  for  thoughts 
and  a<5ls  in  a  prior  life.  He  reviled,  persecuted,  or 
othei  wise  injured  a  deformed  person  so  persistently  or 
violently  as  to  imprint  in  his  own  immortal  mind  the 
deformed  picture  of  his  victim.  For  in  proportion  to 
the  intensity  of  his  thought  will  be  the  intensity  and 
depth  of  the  picture.  It  is  exactly  similar  to  the  ex- 
posure of  the  sensitive  photographic  plate,  whereby, 
just  as  the  exposure  is  long  or  short,  the  impression 
in  the  plate  is  weak  or  deep.  So  this  thinker  and 
actor — the  Ego — coming  again  to  rebirth  carries 
with  him  this  picture,  and  if  the  family  to  which  he 
is  attracted  for  birth  has  similar  physical  tendencies 
in  its  stream,  the  mental  picture  causes  the  newly- 
forming  astral  body  to  assume  a  deformed  shape  by 
electrical  and  magnetic  osmosis  through  the  mother 
of  the  child.  And  as  all  beings  on  earth  are  indis- 
solubly  joined  together,  the  misshapen  child  is  the 
karma  of  the  parents  also  an  exact  consequence  for 
similar  acts  and  thoughts  on  their  part  in  other  lives. 
Here  is  an  exactitude  of  justice  which  no  other  the- 
ory will  furnish. 


CLASSES   OF    KARMA.  93 

But  as  we  often  see  a  deformed  human  being — 
continuing  the  instance  merely  for  the  purpose  of  il- 
lustration— having  a  happy  disposition,  an  excellent 
intellect,  sound  judgment,  and  every  good  moral 
quality,  this  very  instance  leads  us  to  the  conclusion 
that  karma  must  be  of  several  different  kinds  in 
every  individual  case,  and  also  evidently  operates  in 
more  than  one  department  of  our  being,  with  the 
possibility  of  being  pleasant  in  effect  for  one  portion 
of  our  nature  and  unpleasant  for  another. 

Karma  is  of  three  sorts : 

First — that  which  has  not  begun  to  produce  any 
effect  in  our  lives  owing  to  the  operation  on  us  of 
some  other  karmic  causes.  This  is  under  a  law  well 
known  to  physicists,  that  two  opposing  forces  tend 
to  neutrality,  and  that  one  force  may  be  strong 
enough  to  temporarily  prevent  the  operation  of  an- 
other one.  This  law  works  on  the  unseen  mental 
and  karmic  planes  or  spheres  of  being  just  as  it  does 
on  the  material  ones.  The  force  of  a  certain  set  of 
bodily,  mental,  and  psychical  faculties  with  their 
tendencies  may  wholly  inhibit  the  operation  on  us 
of  causes  with  which  we  are  connected,  because  the 
whole  nature  of  each  person  is  used  in  the  carrying 
out  of  this  law.  Hence  the  weak  and  mediocre  fur- 
nish a  weak  focus  for  karma,  and  in  them  the  gen- 
eral result  of  a  lifetime  is  limited,  although  they 
may  feel  it  all  to  be  very  heavy.  But  that  person 
who  has  a  wide  and  deep-reaching  character  and 
much  force  will  feel  the  operation  of  a  greater 
quantity  of  karma  than  the  weaker  person. 

Second — that  karma  which  we  are  now  making  or 
storing  up  by  our  thoughts  and  acts,  and  which  will 
operate  in  the  future  when  the  appropriate  body, 
mind,  and  environment  are  taken  up  by  the  incar- 
nating Ego  in  some  other  life,  or  whenever  obstruc- 
tive karma  is  removed. 

This  bears  both  on  the  present  life  and  the  next 
one.  For  one  may  in  this  life  come  to  a  point  where, 


04  THE  OCEAN  OF  THEOSOPHY. 

all  previous  causes  being  worked  out,  new  karma,  or 
that  which  is  unexpened,  must  begin  to  operate. 

Under  this  are  those  cases  where  men  have  sud  - 
den  reverses  of  fortune  or  changes  for  the  better 
either  in  circumstances  or  character.  A  very  impor- 
tant bearing  of  this  is  on  our  present  conduct. 
While  old  karma  must  work  out  and  cannot  be 
stopped,  it  is  wise  for  the  man  to  so  think  and  act 
now  under  present  circumstances,  no  matter  what 
they  are,  that  he  shall  produce  no  bad  or  prejudi- 
cial causes  for  the  next  rebirth  or  for  later  years  in 
this  life.  Rebellion  is  useless,  for  the  law  works  on 
whether  we  weep  or  rejoice.  The  great  French  en- 
gineer, de  Lesseps,  is  a  good  example  of  this  class 
of  karma.  Raised  to  a  high  pitch  of  glory  and 
achievement  for  many  years  of  his  life,  he  suddenly 
falls  covered  with  shame  through  the  Panama  canal 
scandal.  Whether  he  was  innocent  or  guilty,  he  has 
the  shame  of  the  connection  of  his  name  with  a  na- 
tional enterprise  all  besmirched  with  bribery  and 
corruption  that  involved  high  officials.  This  was 
the  operation  of  old  karmic  causes  on  him  the  very 
moment  those  which  had  governed  his  previous 
years  were  exhausted.  Napoleon  I  is  another,  for 
he  rose  to  a  very  great  fame,  then  suddenly  fell  and 
died  in  exile  and  disgrace.  Many  other  cases  will 
occur  to  every  thoughtful  reader. 

Third — that  karma  which  has  begun  to  produce 
results.  It  is  the  operating  now  in  this  life  on  us  of 
causes  set  up  in  previous  lives  in  company  with 
other  Egos.  And  it  is  in  operation  because,  being 
most  adapted  to  the  family  stock,  the  individual 
body,  astral  body,  and  race  tendencies  of  the  pres- 
ent incarnation,  it  exhibits  itself  plainly,  while  other 
unexpended  karma  awaits  its  regular  turn. 

These  three  classes  of  karma  govern  men,  ani- 
mals, worlds,  and  periods  of  evolution.  Every  ef- 
fect flows  from  a  cause  precedent,  and  as  all  beings 
are  constantly  being  reborn  they  are  continually 


KARMA    HAS   THREE    FIELDS   OF    ACTION.  95 

experiencing-  the  effects  of  their  thoughts  and  acts 
(which  are  themselves  causes)  of  a  prior  incarnation. 
And  thus  each  one  answers,  as  St.  Matthew  says,  for 
every  word  and  thought ;  none  can  escape  either  by 
prayer,  or  favor,  or  force,  or  any  other  intermediary. 

Now  as  karmic  causes  are  divisible  into  three 
classes,  they  must  have  various  fields  in  which  to 
work.  They  operate  upon  man  in  his  mental  and 
intellectual  nature,  in  his  psychical  or  soul  nature, 
and  in  his  body  and  circumstances.  The  spiritual 
nature  of  man  is  never  affected  or  operated  upon  by 
karma. 

One  species  of  karma  may  act  on  the  three  speci- 
fied planes  of  our  nature  at  the  same  time  to  the 
same  degree,  or  there  may  be  a  mixture  of  the  causes, 
some  on  one  plane  and  some  on  another.  Take  a 
deformed  person  who  has  a  fine  mind  and  a  defi- 
ciency in  his  soul  nature.  Here  punitive  or  unpleas- 
ant karma  is  operating  on  his  body  while  in  his 
mental  and  intellectual  nature  good  karma  is  being 
experienced,  but  psychically  the  karma,  or  cause, 
being  of  an  indifferent  sort  the  result  is  indifferent. 
In  another  person  other  combinations  appear.  He 
has  a  fine  body  and  favorable  circumstances,  but  the 
character  is  morose,  peevish,  irritable,  revengeful, 
morbid,  and  disagreeable  to  himself  and  others. 
Here  good  physical  karma  is  at  work  with  very  bad 
mental,  intellectual,  and  psychical  karma.  Cases 
will  occur  to  readers  of  persons  born  in  high  station 
having  every  opportunity  and  power,  yet  being  im- 
becile or  suddenly  becoming  insane. 

And  just  as  all  these  phases  of  the  law  of  karma 
have  sway  over  the  individual  man,  so  they  similarly 
operate  upon  races,  nations,  and  families.  Each  race 
has  its  karma  as  a  whole.  If  it  be  good  that  race 
goes  forward.  If  bad  it  goes  out — annihilated  as  a 
race — though  the  souls  concerned  take  up  their 
karma  in  other  races  and  bodies.  Nations  cannot 
escape  their  national  karma,  and  any  nation  that  has 


ac 

:  i° 


96  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

acted  in  a  wicked  manner  must  suffer  some  day,  be 
soon  or  late.  The  karma  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
ry  in  the  West  is  the  karma  of  Israel,  for  even  the 
merest  tyro  can  see  that  the  Mosaic  influence  is  the 
strongest  in  the  European  and  American  nations. 
The  old  Aztec  and  other  ancient  American  peoples 
died  out  because  their  own  karma — the  result  of 
their  own  life  as  nations  in  the  far  past — fell  upon 
and  destroyed  them.  With  nations  this  heavy  oper- 
ation of  karma  is  always  through  famine,  war,  con- 
vulsion of  nature,  and  the  sterility  of  the  women  of 
the  nation.  The  latter  cause  comes  near  the  end  and 
sweeps  the  whole  remnant  away.  And  the  individual 
in  race  or  nation  is  warned  by  this  great  doctrine  that 
if  he  falls  into  indifference  of  thought  and  a<5t,  thus 
moulding  himself  into  the  general  average  karma 
of  his  race  or  nation,  that  national  and  race  karma 
will  at  last  carry  him  off  in  the  general  destiny. 
This  is  why  teachers  of  old  cried,  ' '  Come  ye  out  and 
be  ye  separate  ". 

With  reincarnation  the  doctrine  of  karma  explains 
the  misery  and  suffering  of  the  world,  and  no  room 
is  left  to  accuse  Nature  of  injustice. 

The  misery  of  any  nation  or  race  is  the  direct  re- 
sult of  the  thoughts  and  acts  of  the  Egos  who  make 
up  the  race  or  nation.  In  the  dim  past  they  did 
wickedly  and  now  suffer.  They  violated  the  laws 
of  harmony.  The  immutable  rule  is  that  harmony 
must  be  restored  if  violated.  So  these  Egos  suffer 
in  making  compensation  and  establishing  the  equi- 
librium of  the  occult  cosmos.  The  whole  mass  of 
Egos  must  go  on  incarnating  and  reincarnating  in 
the  nation  or  race  until  they  have  all  worked  out  to 
the  end  the  causes  set  up.  Though  the  nation  may 
for  a  time  disappear  as  a  physical  thing,  the  Egos 
that  made  it  do  not  leave  the  world,  but  come  out  as 
the  makers  of  some  new  nation  in  which  they  must 
go  on  with  the  task  and  take  either  punishment  or 
reward  as  accords  with  their  karma.  Of  this  law 


UNHAPPINESS   AND    HAPPINESS   EXPLAINED.  97 

the  old  Egyptians  are  an  illustration.  They  cer- 
tainly rose  to  a  high  point  of  development,  and  as 
certainly  they  were  extinguished  as  a  nation.  But 
the  souls-— the  old  Egos — live  on  and  are  now  fulfill- 
ing their  self-made  destiny  as  some  other  nation  now 
in  our  period.  They  may  be  the  new  American  na- 
tion, or  the  Jews  fated  to  wander  up  and  down  in 
the  world  and  suffer  much  at  the  hands  of  others. 
This  process  is  perfecty  just.  Take,  for  instance,  the 
United  States  and  the  Red  Indians.  The  latter  have 
been  most  shamefully  treated  by  the  nation.  The 
Indian  Egos  will  be  reborn  in  the  new  and  conquer- 
ing people,  and  as  members  of  that  great  family  will 
be  the  means  themselves  of  bringing  on  the  due  re- 
sults for  such  acts  as  were  done  against  them  when 
they  had  red  bodies.  Thus  it  has  happened  before, 
and  so  it  will  come  about  again. 

Individual  unhappiness  in  any  life  is  thus  ex- 
plained : 

(a)  It  is  punishment  for  evil  done  in  past  lives;  \ 
or  (b)  it  is  discipline  taken  up  by  the  Ego  for  the  j 
purpose  of  eliminating  defects  or  acquiring  fortitude/ 
and  sympathy.      When  defects  are  eliminated  it  is 
like  removing  the  obstruction  in  an  irrigating  canal 
which  then  lets  the  water  flow  on.     Happiness  is  ex- 
plained in  the  same  way:  the  result  of  prior  lives  of 
goodness. 

The  scientific  and  self-compelling  basis  for  right 
ethics  is  found  in  these  and  in  no  other  doctrines. 
For  if  right  ethics  are  to  be  practised  merely  for 
themselves,  men  will  not  see  why,  and  have  never 
been  able  to  see  why,  for  that  reason  they  should  do 
right.  If  ethics  are  to  be  followed  from  fear,  man 
is  degraded  and  will  surely  evade ;  if  the  favor  of 
the  Almighty,  not  based  on  law  or  justice,  be  the 
reason,  then  we  will  have  just  what  prevails  today — 
a  code  given  by  Jesus  to  the  west  professed  by  na- 
tions and  not  practised  save  by  the  few  who  would 
in  any  case  be  virtuous. 


98  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

On  this  subject  the  Adepts  have  written  the  fol- 
lowing to  be  found  in  the  Secret  Doctrine: 

Nor  would  the  ways  of  karma  be  inscrutable  were  men  to 
work  in  union  and  harmony  instead  of  disunion  and  strife.  For 
our  ignorance  of  those  ways — which  one  portion  of  mankind 
calls  the  ways  of  Providence  dark  and  intricate,  while  another 
sees  in  them  the  action  of  blind  fatalism,  and  a  third  simple 
chance  with  neither  gods  nor  devils  to  guide  them — would 
surely  disappear  if  we  would  but  attribute  all  these  to  their 
correct  cause.  With  right  knowledge,  or  at  any  rate  with  a 
confident  conviction  that  our  neighbors  will  no  more  work 
harm  to  us  than  we  would  think  of  harming  them,  two-thirds 
of  the  world's  evil  would  vanish  into  thin  air.  Were  no  man 
to  hurt  his  brother,  Karma-Nemesis  would  have  neither  cause 
to  work  for  nor  weapons  to  act  through.  .  .  .  We  cut  these 
numerous  windings  in  our  destinies  daily  with  our  own  hands, 
while  we  imagine  that  we  are  pursuing  a  track  on  the  royal 
high  road  of  respectability  and  duty,  and  then  complain  of 
those  ways  being  so  intricate  and  so  dark.  We  stand  bewil- 
dered before  the  mystery  of  our  own  making  and  the  riddles 
of  life  that  we  will  not  solve,  and  then  accuse  the  great 
Sphinx  of  devouring  us.  But  verily  there  is  not  an  accident 
in  our  lives,  not  a  misshapen  day  or  a  misfortune,  that  could 
not  be  traced  back  to  our  own  doings  in  this  or  another  life. 
.  .  .  Knowledge  of  karma  gives  the  conviction  that  if — 

'       virtue  in  distress  and  vice  in  triumph 
Make  atheists  of  Mankind  ', 

it  is  only  because  that  mankind  has  ever  shut  its  eyes  to  the 
great  truth  that  man  is  himself  his  own  saviour  as  his  own 
destroyer ;  that  he  need  not  accuse  heaven  and  the  gods,  fates 
and  providence,  of  the  apparent  injustice  that  reigns  in  the 
midst  of  humanity.  But  let  him  rather  remember  and  repeat 
this  bit  of  Grecian  wisdom  which  warns  man  to  forbear  accus- 
ing That  which 

'  Just  though  mysterious,  leads  us  on  unerring 
Through  ways  unmarked  from  guilt  to  punishment ' 

— which  are  now  the  ways  and  the  high  road  on  which  move 
onward  the  great  European  nations.  The  western  Aryans  had 
every  nation  and  tribe  like  their  eastern  brethren  of  the  fifth 
race,  their  Golden  and  their  Iron  ages,  their  period  of  com- 
parative irresponsibility,  or  the  Satya  age  of  purity,  while  now 
several  of  them  have  reached  their  Iron  age,  the  Kali  Yuga, 
an  age  black  with  horrors.  This  state  will  last  .  .  until  we 
begin  acting  from  within  instead  of  ever  following  impulses 
from  without  .  .  .  Until  then  the  only  palliative  is  union  and 
harmony — a  Brotherhood  in  ac tu  and  altruism  not  simply  in 
name. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

JET  us  now  consider  the  states  of  man  after 
the  death  of  the  body  and  before  birth, 
having  looked  over  the  whole  field  of  the 
evolution  of  things  and  beings  in  a  general 
way.  This  brings  up  at  once  the  questions:  Is  there 
any  heaven  or  hell,  and  what  are  they?  Are  they 
states  or  places?  Is  there  a  spot  in  space  where  they 
may  be  found  and  to  which  we  go  or  from  where  we 
come?  We  must  also  go  back  to  the  subject  of  the 
fourth  principle  of  the  constitution  of  man,  that 
called  Kama  in  Sanscrit  and  desire  or  passion  in 
English.  Bearing  in  mind  what  was  said  about  that 
principle,  and  also  the  teaching  in  respect  to  the  as- 
tral body  and  the  Astral  Light,  it  will  be  easier  to 
understand  what  is  taught  about  the  two  states  ante 
and  post  mortem.  In  chronological  order  we  go  into 
kama  loka — or  the  plane  of  desire — first  on  the  de- 
mise of  the  body,  and  then  the  higer  principles,  the 
real  man,  fall  into  the  state  of  Devachan.  After  deal- 
ing with  kama  loka  it  will  be  more  easy  to  study  the 
question  of  Devachan. 

The  breath  leaves  the  body  and  we  say  the  man  is 
dead,  but  that  is  only  the  beginning  of  death;  it 
proceeds  on  other  planes.  When  the  frame  is  cold 
and  eyes  closed,  all  the  forces  of  the  body  and  mind 
rush  through  the  brain,  and  by  a  series  of  pictures 
the  whole  life  just  ended  is  imprinted  indelibly  on 
the  inner  man  not  only  in  a  general  outline  but  down 
to  the  smallest  detail  of  even  the  most  minute  and 
fleeting  impression.  At  this  moment,  though  every 
indication  leads  the  physician  to  pronounce  for  death 
and  though  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the  person  is 
dead  to  this  life,  the  real  man  is  busy  in  the  brain, 


100  THE   OCEAN   OF    THEOSOPHY. 

and  not  until  his  work  there  is  ended  is  the  person 
gone.  When  this  solemn  work  is  over  the  astral 
body  detaches  itself  from  the  physical,  and,  life  en- 
ergy having  departed,  the  remaining  five  principles 
are  in  the  plane  of  kama  loka. 

The  natural  separation  of  the  principles  brought 
about  by  death  divides  the  total  man  into  three  parts : 

First,  the  visible  body  with  all  its  elements  left  to 
further  disintegration  on  the  earth  plane,  where  all 
that  it  is  composed  of  is  in  time  resolved  into  the 
different  physical  departments  of  nature. 

Second,  the  kama  rupa  made  up  of  the  astral  body 
and  the  passions  and  desires,  which-  also  begins  at 
once  to  go  to  pieces  on  the  astral  plane ; 

Third,  the  real  man,  the  upper  triad  of  Atma-Bud- 
dhi-Manas,  deathless  but  now  out  of  earth  conditions, 
devoid  of  body,  begins  in  devachan  to  function  solely 
as  mind  clothed  in  a  very  ethereal  vesture  which  it 
will  shake  off  when  the  time  comes  for  it  to  return 
to  earth. 

Kama  loka— or  the  place  of  desire — is  the  astral 
region  penetrating  and  surrounding  the  earth.  As 
a  place  it  is  on  and  in  and  about  the  earth.  Its 
extent  is  to  a  measurable  distance  from  the  earth, 
but  the  ordinary  laws  obtaining  here  do  not  obtain 
there,  and  entities  therein  are  not  under  the  same 
conditions  as  to  space  and  time  as  we  are.  As  a  state 
it  is  metaphysical,  though  that  metaphysic  relates  to 
the  astral  plane.  It  is  called  the  plane  of  desire  be- 
cause it  relates  to  the  fourth  principle,  and  in  it  the 
ruling  force  is  desire  devoid  of  and  divorced  from 
intelligence.  It  is  an  astral  sphere  intermediate  be- 
tween earthly  and  heavenly  life.  Beyond  any  doubt 
it  is  the  origin  of  the  Christian  theory  of  purgatory, 
where  the  soul  undergoes  penance  for  evil  done  arid 
from  which  it  can  be  released  by  prayer  and  other 
ceremonies  or  offerings.  The  faci  underlying  this 
superstition  is  that  the  soul  may  be  detained  in  kama 
loka  by  the  enormous  force  of  some  unsatisfied  de- 


KAMA    LOKA    ORIGIN    OF   PURGATORY.  IOI 

sire,  and  cannot  get  rid  of  the  astral  and  kamic 
clothing  until  that  desire  is  satisfied  by  some  one  on 
earth  or  by  the  soul  itself.  But  if  the  person  was 
pure  minded  and  of  high  aspirations,  the  separation 
of  the  principles  on  that  plane  is  soon  completed, 
permitting  the  higher  triad  to  go  into  Devachan. 
Being  the  purely  astral  sphere,  it  partakes  of  the  na- 
ture of  the  astral  matter  which  is  essentially  earthly 
and  devilish,  and  in  it  all  the  forces  work  undirected 
by  soul  or  conscience.  It  is  the  slag-pit,  as  it  were,  of 
the  great  furnace  of  life,  where  nature  provides  for 
the  sloughing  off  of  elements  which  have  no  place 
in  Devachan,  and  for  that  reason  it  must  have  many 
degrees,  every  one  of  which  was  noted  by  the  an- 
cients. These  degrees  are  known  in  Sanscrit  as 
lokas  or  places  in  a  metaphysical  sense.  Human  life 
is  very  varied  as  to  character  and  other  potentialities, 
and  for  each  of  these  the  appropriate  place  after 
death  is  provided,  thus  making  kama  loka  an  infi- 
nitely varied  sphere.  In  life  some  of  the  differences 
among  men  are  modified  and  some  inhibited  by  a 
similarity  of  body  and  heredity,  but  in  kama  loka  all 
the  hidden  desires  and  passions  are  let  loose  in  con- 
sequence of  the  absence  of  body,  and  for  that  rea- 
son the  state  is  vastly  more  diversified  than  the  life 
plane.  Not  only  is  it  necessary  to  provide  for  the 
natural  varieties  and  differences,  but  also  for  those 
caused  by  the  manner  of  death,  about  which  some- 
thing shall  be  said.  And  all  these  various  divisions 
are  but  the  natural  result  of  the  life  thoughts  and 
last  thoughts  of  the  persons  who  die  on  earth.  It  is 
beyond  the  scope  of  this  work  to  go  into  a  descrip- 
tion of  all  these  degrees,  inasmuch  as  volumes  would 
be  needed  to  describe  them,  and  then  but  few  would 
understand. 

To  deal  with  kama  loka  compels  us  to  deal  also 
with  the  fourth  principle  in  the  classification  of  man's 
constitution,  and  arouses  a  conflict  with  modern 
ideas  and  education  on  the  subject  of  the  desires  and 


102  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

passions.  It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  desires 
and  passions  are  inherent  tendencies  in  the  individ- 
ual, and  they  have  an  altogether  unreal  and  misty 
appearance  for  the  ordinary  student.  But  in  this 
system  of  philosophy  they  are  not  merely  inherent 
in  the  individual  nor  are  they  due  to  the  body  per  se. 
While  the  man  is  living  in  the  world  the  desires  and 
passions — the  principle  kama — have  no  separate  life 
apart  from  the  astral  and  inner  man,  being,  so  to  say, 
diffused  throughout  his  being.  But  as  they  coalesce 
with  the  astral  body  after  death  and  thus  form  an 
entity  with  its  own  term  of  life,  though  without  soul, 
very  important  questions  arise.  During  mortal  life 
the  desires  and  passions  are  guided  by  the  mind  and 
soul ;  after  death  they  work  without  guidance  from 
the  former  master ;  while  we  live  we  are  responsible 
for  them  and  their  effects,  and  when  we  have  left 
this  life  we  are  still  responsible,  although  they  go 
on  working  and  making  effects  on  others  while  they 
last  as  the  sort  of  entity  I  have  described,  and 
without  our  direct  guidance.  In  this  is  seen  the 
continuance  of  responsibility.  They  are  a  portion 
of  the  skandhas — well  known  in  eastern  philosophy — 
which  are  the  aggregates  that  make  up  the  man. 
The  body  includes  one  set  of  the  skandhas,  the  astral 
man  another,  the  kama  principle  is  another  set,  and 
still  others  pertain  to  other  parts.  In  kama  are  the 
really  active  and  important  ones  which  control  re- 
births and  lead  to  all  the  varieties  of  life  and  cir- 
cumstance upon  each  rebirth.  They  are  being 
made  from  day  to  day  under  the  law  that  every 
thought  combines  instantly  with  one  of  the  elemental 
forces  of  nature,  becoming  to  that  extent  an  entity 
which  will  endure  in  accordance  with  the  strength 
of  the  thought  as  it  leaves  the  brain,  and  all  of  these 
are  inseparably  connected  with  the  being  who  evolved 
them.  There  is  no  way  of  escaping ;  all  we  can  do  is 
to  have  thoughts  of  good  quality,  for  the  highest  of 
the  Masters  themselves  are  not  exempt  from  this 


THE    SKANDHAS   IN    KAMA    LOKA.  103 

law,  but  they  "people  their  current  in  space"  with 
entities  powerful  for  good  alone. 

Now  in  kama  loka  this  mass  of  desire  and  thought 
exists  very  definitely  until  the  conclusion  of  its  dis- 
integration, and  then  the  remainder  consists  of  the 
essence  of  these  skandhas,  connected,  of  course,  with 
the  being  that  evolved  and  had  them.  They  can  no 
more  be  done  away  with  than  we  can  blot  out  the 
universe.  Hence  they  are  said  to  remain  until  the 
being  conies  out  of  devachan,  and  then  at  once  by  the 
law  of  attraction  they  are  drawn  to  the  being,  who 
from  them  as  germ  or  basis  builds  up  a  new  set  of 
skandhas  for  the  new  life.  ^  Kama  loka  therefore  is 
distinguished  from  the  earth  plane  by  reason  of  the 
existence  therein,  uncontrolled  and  unguided,  of  the 
mass  of  passions  and  desires ;  but  at  the  same  time 
earth-life  is  also  a  kama  loka,  since  it  is  largely  gov- 
erned by  the  principle  kama,  and  will  be  so  until  at 
a  far  distant  time  in  the  course  of  evolution  the  races 
of  men  shall  have  developed  the  fifth  and  sixth  prin- 
ciple, thus  throwing  kama  into  its  own  sphere  and 
freeing  earth-life  from  its  influence. 

The  astral  man  in  kama  loka  is  a  mere  shell  devoid 
of  soul  and  mind,  without  conscience  and  also  unable 
to  ac~l  unless  vivified  by  forces  outside  of  itself.  It 
has  that  which  seems  like  an  animal  or  automatic 
consciousness  due  wholly  to  the  very  recent  associa- 
tion with  the  human  Ego.  For  under  the  principle 
laid  down  in  another  chapter,  every  atom  going  to 
make  up  the  man  has  a  memory  of  its  own  which  is 
capable  of  lasting  a  length  of  time  in  proportion  to 
the  force  given  it.  In  the  case  of  a  very  material 
and  gross  or  selfish  person  the  force  lasts  longer  than 
in  any  other,  and  hence  in  that  case  the  automatic 
consciousness  will  be  more  definite  and  bewildering 
to  one  who  without  knowledge  dabbles  with  necro- 
mancy. Its  purely  astral  portion  contains  and  carries 
the  record  of  all  that  ever  passed  before  the  person 
when  living,  for  one  of  the  qualities  of  the  astral 


104  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

substance  is  to  absorb  all  scenes  and  pictures  and  the 
impressions  of  all  thoughts,  to  keep  them,  and  to 
throw  them  forth  by  reflection  when  the  conditions 
permit.  This  astral  shell,  cast  off  by  every  man  at 
death,  would  be  a  menace  to  all  men  were  it  not  in 
every  case,  except  one  which  shall  be  mentioned,  de- 
void of  all  the  higher  principles  which  are  the  direct- 
ors. But  those  guiding  constituents  being  disjoined 
from  the  shell,  it  wavers  and  floats  about  from  place 
to  place  without  any  will  of  its  own,  but  governed 
wholly  by  attractions  in  the  astral  and  magnetic 
fields. 

It  is  possible  for  the  real  man — called  the  spirit  by 
some — to  communicate  with  us  immediately  after 
death  for  a  few  brief  moments,  but,  those  passed, 
the  soul  has  no  more  to  do  with  earth  until  reincar- 
nated. What  can  and  do  influence  the  sensitive  and 
the  medium  from  out  of  this  sphere  are  the  shells  I 
have  described.  Soulless  and  conscienceless,  these 
in  no  sense  are  the  spirits  of  our  deceased  ones. 
They  are  the  clothing  thrown  off  by  the  inner  man, 
the  brutal  earthly  portion  discarded  in  the  flight  to 
devachan,  and  so  have  always  been  considered  by  the 
ancients  as  devils — our  personal  devils — because  es- 
sentially astral,  earthly,  and  passional.  It  would  be 
strange  indeed  if  this  shell,  after  being  for  so  long 
the  vehicle  of  the  real  man  on  earth,  did  not  retain 
an  automatic  memory  and  consciousness.  We  see 
the  decapitated  body  of  the  frog  or  the  cock  moving 
and  acting  for  a  time  with  a  seeming  intelligence, 
and  why  is  it  not  possible  for  the  finer  and  more  sub- 
tle astral  form  to  a<5t  and  move  with  a  far  greater 
amount  of  seeming  mental  direction? 

Existing  in  the  sphere  of  kama  loka,  as,  indeed, 
also  in  all  parts  of  the  globe  and  the  solar  system, 
are  the  elementals  or  nature  forces.  They  are  innu- 
merable, and  their  divisions  are  almost  infinite,  as 
they  are,  in  a  sense,  the  nerves  of  nature.  Each 
class  has  its  own  work  just  as  has  every  natural  ele- 


SHELLS   OF   THE   DEAD   CLASSIFIED.  105 

ment  or  thing.  As  fire  burns  and  as  water  runs 
down  and  not  up  under  their  general  law,  so  the 
elementals  a<5l  under  law,  but  being  higher  in  the 
scale  than  gross  fire  or  water  their  action  seems 
guided  by  mind.  Some  of  them  have  a  special  re- 
lation to  mental  operations  and  to  the  action  of  the 
astral  organs,  whether  these  be  joined  to  a  body  or 
not.  When  a  medium  forms  the  channel,  and  also 
from  other  natural  coordination,  these  elementals 
make  an  artificial  connection  with  the  shell  of  a  de- 
ceased person,  aided  by  the  nervous  fluid  of  the  me- 
dium and  others  near,  and  then  the  shell  is  galvan- 
ized into  an  artificial  life.  Through  the  medium 
connection  is  made  with  the  physical  and  psychical 
forces  of  all  present.  The  old  impressions  on  the 
astral  body  give  up  their  images  to  the  mind  of 
the  medium,  the  old  passions  are  set  on  fire.  Vari- 
ous messages  and  reports  are  then  obtained  from  it, 
but  not  one  of  them  is  original,  not  one  is  from  the 
spirit.  By  their  strangeness,  and  in  consequence  of 
the  ignorance  of  those  who  dabble  in  it,  this  is  mis- 
taken for  the  work  of  spirit,  but  it  is  all  from  the 
living  when  it  is  not  the  mere  picking  out  from  the 
astral  light  of  the  images  of  what  has  been  in  the 
past.  In  certain  cases  to  be  noted  there  is  an  intel- 
ligence at  work  that  is  wholly  and  intensely  bad,  to 
which  every  medium  is  subject,  and  which  will  ex- 
plain why  so  many  of  them  have  succumbed  to  evil, 
as  they  have  confessed. 

A  rough  classification  of  these  shells  that  visit  me- 
diums would  be  as  follows : 

(i)  Those  of  the  recently  deceased  whose  place  of 
burial  is  not  far  away.  This  class  will  be  quite  co- 
herent in  accordance  with  the  life  and  thought  of 
the  former  owner.  An  unmaterial,  good,  and  spirit- 
ualized person  leaves  a  shell  that  will  soon  disinte- 
grate. A  gross,  mean,  selfish,  material  person's  shell 
will  be  heavy,  consistent,  and  long  lived :  and  so  on 
with  all  varieties. 


106  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

(2)  Those  of  persons  who  had  died  far  away  from 
the  place  where  the  medium  is.     Lapse  of  time  per- 
mits such  to  escape  from  the  vicinity  of  their  old 
bodies,  and  at  the  same  time  brings  on  a  greater  de- 
gree of  disintegration  which  corresponds  on  the  as- 
tral plane  to  putrefaction  on  the  physical.      These 
are  vague,  shadowy,  incoherent ;  respond  but  briefly 
to  the  psychic  stimulus,  and  are  whirled  off  by  any 
magnetic  current.     They  are  galvanized  for  a  mo- 
ment by  the  astral  currents  of  the  medium  and  of 
those  persons  present  who  were  related  to  the  de- 
ceased. 

(3)  Purely  shadowy  remains  which  can  hardly  be 
given  a  place.     There  is  no  English  to  describe  them, 
though  they  are  facts  in  this  sphere.     They  might 
be  said  to  be  the  mere  mould  or  impress  left  in  the 
astral  substance  by  the  once  coherent  shell  long  since 
disintegrated.      They  are  therefore  so  near  being 
fictitious  as  to  almost  deserve  the  designation.      As 
such  shadowy  photographs  they  are  enlarged,  deco- 
rated, and  given  an  imaginary  life  by  the  thoughts, 
desires,  hopes,  and  imaginings  of  medium  and  sitters 
at  the  seance. 

(4)  Definite,  coherent  entities,  human  souls  bereft 
of  th.2  spiritual  tie,  now  tending  down  to  the  worst 
stat^  A  all,  avitchi,  where  annihilation  of  the  person- 
ality is  the  end.       They  are  known  as  black  magi- 
cians.      Having  centred   the  consciousness  in   the 
principle  of  kama,  preserved  intellect,  divorced  them- 
selves from  spirit,  they  are  the  only  damned  beings  we 
know.     In  life  they  had  human  bodies  and  reached 
their  awful  state  by  persistent  lives  of  evil  for  its 
own  sake ;  some  of  such  already  doomed  to  become 
what  I  have  described,  are  among  us  on  earth  to-day. 
These  are  not  ordinary  shells,  for  they  have  centred 
all  their  force  in  kama,  thrown  out  every  spark  of 
good  thought  or  aspiration,    and  have   a  complete 
mastery  of  the  astral  sphere.       I  put  them  in  the 
classification  of  shells  because  they  are  such  in  the 


THE    WICKED    AND   SUICIDES   IN    KAMA    LOKA.       107 

sense  that  they  are  doomed  to  disintegration  con- 
sciously as  the  others  are  to  the  same  end  mechanic- 
ally only.  They  may  and  do  last  for  many  centuries, 
gratifying  their  lusts  through  any  sensitive  they  can 
lay  hold  of  where  bad  thought  gives  them  an  open- 
ing. They  preside  at  nearly  all  seances,  assuming 
high  names  and  taking  the  direction  so  as  to  keep 
the  control  and  continue  the  delusion  of  the  medium, 
thus  enabling  themselves  to  have  a  convenient  chan- 
nel for  their  own  evil  purposes.  Indeed,  with  the 
shells  of  suicides,  of  those  poor  wretches  who  die  at 
the  hand  of  the  law,  of  drunkards  and  gluttons, 
these  black  magicians  living  in  the  astral  world  hold 
the  field  of  physical  mediumship  and  are  liable  to  in- 
vade the  sphere  of  any  medium  no  matter  how  good. 
The  door  once  open,  it  is  open  to  all.  This  class  of 
shell  has  lost  higher  manas,  but  in  the  struggle  not 
only  after  death  but  as  well  in  life  the  lower  portion 
of  manas  which  should  have  been  raised  up  to  godlike 
excellence  was  torn  away  from  its  lord  and  now  gives 
this  entity  intelligence  which  is  devoid  of  spirit  but 
power  to  suffer  as  it  will  when  its  final  day  shall 
come. 

In  the  state  of  Kama  Loka  suicides  and  those  who 
are  suddenly  shot  out  of  life  by  accident  or  murder, 
legal  or  illegal,  pass  a  term  almost  equal  to  the 
length  life  would  have  been  but  for  the  sudden  ter- 
mination. These  are  not  really  dead.  To  bring  on 
a  normal  death,  a  factor  not  recognized  by  medical 
science  must  be  present.  That  is,  the  principles 
of  the  being  as  described  in  other  chapters  have 
their  own  term  of  cohesion,  at  the  natural  end  of 
which  they  separate  from  each  other  under  their  own 
laws.  This  involves  the  great  subject  of  the  cohe- 
sive forces  of  the  human  subject,  requiring  a  book  in 
itself.  I  must  be  content  therefore  with  the  assertion 
that  this  law  of  cohesion  obtains  among  the  human 
principles.  Before  that  natural  end  the  principles 
are  unable  to  separate.  Obviously  the  normal  de- 


108  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

struclion  of  the  cohesive  force  cannot  be  brought 
about  by  mechanical  processes  except  in  respect  to 
the  physical  body.  Hence  a  suicide,  or  person  killed 
by  accident  or  murdered  by  man  or  by  order  of  hu- 
man law,  has  not  come  to  the  natural  termination  of 
the  cohesion  among  the  other  constituents,  and  is 
hurled  into  the  kama  loka  state  only  partly  dead. 
There  the  remaining  principles  have  to  wait  until 
the  actual  natural  life  term  is  reached,  whether  it  be 
one  month  or  sixty  years. 

But  the  degrees  of  kama  loka  provide  for  the  many 
varieties  of  the  last-mentioned  shells.  Some  pass 
the  period  in  great  suffering,  others  in  a  dreamy  sort 
of  sleep,  each  according  to  the  moral  responsibility. 
But  executed  criminals  are  in  general  thrown  out  of 
life  full  of  hate  and  revenge,  smarting  under  a  pen- 
alty they  do  not  admit  the  justice  of.  They  are  ever 
rehearsing  in  kama  loka  their  crime,  their  trial,  their 
execution,  and  their  revenge.  And  whenever  they 
can  gain  touch  with  a  sensitive  living  person,  me- 
dium or  not,  they  attempt  to  inject  thoughts  of 
murder  and  other  crime  into  the  brain  of  such  unfor- 
tunate. And  that  they  succeed  in  such  attempts  the 
deeper  students  of  Theosophy  full  well  know. 

We  have  now  approached  devachan.  After  a  cer- 
tain time  in  kama  loka  the  being  falls  into  a  state  of 
unconsciousness  which  precedes  the  change  into  the 
next  state.  It  is  like  the  birth  into  life,  preluded  by 
a  term  of  darkness  and  heavy  sleep.  It  then  wakes 
to  the  joys  of  devachan. 


CHAPTER  XIIL 

JAVING  shown  that  just  beyond  the  thresh- 
old of  human  life  there  is  a  place  of  sep- 
aration wherein  the  better  part  of  man  is 
divided  from  his  lower  and  brute  elements, 
we  come  to  consider  what  is  the  state  after  death  of 
the  real  being1,  the  immortal  who  travels  from  life  to 
life.  Struggling  out  of  the  body  the  entire  man  goes 
into  kama  loka,  to  purgatory,  where  he  again  strug- 
gles and  loosens  himself  from  the  lower  skandhas; 
this  period  of  birth  over,  the  higher  principles,  Atma- 
Buddhi- Manas,  begin  to  think  in  a  manner  different 
from  that  which  the  body  and  brain  permitted  in  life. 
This  is  the  state  of  Devachan,  a  Sanscrit  word  mean- 
ing literally  "the  place  of  the  gods",  where  the  soul 
enjoys  felicity;  but  as  the  gods  have  no  such  bodies 
as  ours,  the  Self  in  devachan  is  devoid  of  a  mortal 
body.  In  the  ancient  books  it  is  said  that  this  state 
lasts  "for  years  of  infinite  number",  or  "for  a  pe- 
riod proportionate  to  the  merit  of  the  being";  and 
when  the  mental  forces  peculiar  to  the  state  are  ex- 
hausted, "the  being  is  drawn  down  again  to  be  re- 
born in  the  world  of  mortals  ".  Devachan  is  therefore 
an  interlude  between  births  in  the  world.  The  law 
of  karma  which  forces  us  all  to  enter  the  world,  be- 
ing ceaseless  in  its  operation  and  also  universal  in 
scope,  acts  also  on  the  being  in  devachan,  for  only  by 
the  force  or  operation  of  Karma  are  we  taken  out 
of  devachan.  It  is  something  like  the  pressure  of  at- 
mosphere which,  being  continuous  and  uniform,  will 
push  out  or  crush  that  which  is  subjected  to  it  un- 
less there  be  a  compensating  quantity  of  atmosphere 
to  counteract  the  pressure.  In  the  present  case  the 
karma  of  the  being  is  the  atmosphere  always  press- 


HO  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

ing  the  being  on  or  out  from  state  to  state ;  the  coun- 
teracting quantity  of  atmosphere  is  the  force  of  the 
being's  own  life-thoughts  and  aspirations  which  pre- 
vent his  coming  out  of  devachan  until  that  force  is 
exhausted,  but  which  being  spent  has  no  more 
prwer  to  hold  back  the  decree  of  our  self-made 
mortal  destiny. 

The  necessity  for  this  state  after  death  is  one  of 
the  necessities  of  evolution  growing  out  of  the  na- 
ture of  mind  and  soul.  The  very  nature  of  manas 
requires  a  devachanic  state  as  soon  as  the  body  is 
lost,  and  it  is  simply  the  effect  of  loosening  the  bonds 
placed  upon  the  mind  by  its  physical  and  astral  en- 
casement. In  life  we  can  but  to  a  fractional  extent 
act  out  the  thoughts  we  have  each  moment ;  and  still 
less  can  we  exhaust  the  psychic  energies  engendered 
by  each  day's  aspirations  and  dreams.  The  energy 
thus  engendered  is  not  lost  or  annihilated,  but  is 
stored  in  Manas,  but  the  body,  brain,  and  astral  body 
permit  no  full  development  of  the  force.  Hence,  held 
latent  until  death,  it  bursts  then  from  the  weakened 
bonds  and  plunges  Manas,  the  thinker,  into  the  expan- 
sion, use,  and  development  of  the  thought-force  set 
up  in  life.  The  impossibility  of  escaping  this  neces- 
sary state  lies  in  man's  ignorance  of  his  own  powers 
and  faculties.  From  this  ignorance  delusion  arises, 
and  Manas  not  being  wholly  free  is  carried  by  its  own 
force  into  the  thinking  of  devachan  But  while  igno- 
rance is  the  cause  for  going  into  this  state  the  whole 
process  is  remedial,  restful,  and  beneficial.  For  if 
the  average  man  returned  at  once  to  another  body  in 
the  same  civilization  he  had  just  quitted,  his  soul 
would  be  completely  tired  out  and  deprived  of  the 
needed  opportunity  for  the  development  of  the  higher 
part  of  his  nature. 

Now  the  Ego  being  minus  mortal  body  and  kama, 
clothes  itself  in  devachan  with  a  vesture  which  cannot 
be  called  body  but  may  be  styled  means  or  vehicle, 
and  in  that  it  functions  in  the  devachanic  state  en- 


CAUSES   MANIFEST   IN    TWO   FIELDS.  Ill 

tirely  on  the  plane  of  mind  and  soul.  Everything 
is  as  real  then  to  the  being  as  this  world  seems  to  be 
to  us.  It  simply  now  has  gotten  the  opportunity  to 
make  its  own  world  for  itself  unhampered  by  the 
clogs  of  physical  life.  Its  state  may  be  compared  to 
that  of  the  poet  or  artist  who,  rapt  in  ecstacy  of  com- 
position or  arrangement  of  color,  cares  not  for  and 
knows  not  of  either  time  or  objects  of  the  world. 

We  are  making  causes  every  moment,  and  but  two 
fields  exist  for  the  manifestation  in  effect  of  those 
causes.  These  are,  the  objective  as  this  world  is 
called,  and  the  subjective  which  is  both  here  and 
after  we  have  left  this  life.  The  objective  field  re- 
lates to  earth  life  and  the  grosser  part  of  man,  to  his 
bodily  acts  and  his  brain  thoughts,  as  also  sometimes 
to  his  astral  body.  The  subjective  has  to  do  with 
his  higher  and  spiritual  parts.  In  the  objective  field 
the  psychic  impulses  cannot  work  out,  nor  can  the 
high  leanings  and  aspirations  of  his  soul ;  hence  these 
must  be  the  basis,  cause,  substratum,  and  suj  port  for 
the  state  of  devachan.  What  then  is  the  time,  meas- 
ured by  mortal  years,  that  one  will  stay  in  devachan  ? 

This  question  while  dealing  with  what  earth-men 
call  time  does  not,  of  course,  touch  the  real  meaning 
of  time  itself,  that  is,  of  what  may  be  in  fact  for  this 
solar  system  the  ultimate  order,  precedence,  succes- 
sion, and  length  of  moments.  It  is  a  question  which 
may  be  answered  in  respect  to  our  time,  but  not  cer- 
tainly in*  respect  to  the  time  on  the  planet  Mercury, 
for  instance,  where  time  is  not  the  same  as  ours,  nor, 
indeed,  in  respect  to  time  as  conceived  by  the  soul. 
As  to  the  latter  any  man  can  see  that  after  many 
years  have  slipped  away  he  has  no  direct  perception 
of  the  time  just  passed,  but  is  able  only  to  pick  out 
some  of  the  incidents  which  marked  its  passage,  and 
as  to  some  poignant  or  happy  instants  or  hours  he 
seems  to  feel  them  as  but  of  yesterday.  And  thus  it 
is  for  the  being  in  devachan.  No  time  is  there.  The 
soul  has  all  the  benefit  of  what  goes  on  within  itself 


112  THE   OCEAN    OF   THEOSOPHY. 

in  that  state,  but  it  indulges  in  no  speculations  as  to 
the  lapse  of  moments;  all  is  made  up  of  events, 
while  all  the  time  the  solar  orb  is  marking1  off  the 
years  for  us  on  the  earth  plane.  This  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  an  impossibility  if  we  will  remember  how, 
as  is  well  known  in  life,  events,  pictures,  thoughts, 
argument,  introspective  feeling  will  all  sweep  over 
us  in  perfect  detail  in  an  instant,  or,  as  is  known  of 
those  who  have  been  drowning,  the  events  of  a  whole 
life  time  pass  in  a  flash  before  the  eye  of  the  mind. 
But  the  Ego  remains  as  said  in  devachan  for  a  time 
exactly  proportioned  to  the  psychic  impulses  genera- 
ted during  life.  Now  this  being  a  matter  which  deals 
with  the  mathematics  of  the  soul,  no  one  but  a  Mas- 
ter can  tell  what  the  time  would  be  for  the  average 
man  of  this  century  in  every  land.  Hence  we  have 
to  depend  on  the  Masters  of  wisdom  for  that  aver- 
age, as  it  must  be  based  upon  a  calculation.  They 
have  said,  as  is  well  put  by  Mr.  A.  P.  Sinnett  in  his 
Esoteric  Buddhism,  that  the  period  is  fifteen  hundred 
years  in  general.  From  a  reading  of  his  book,  which 
was  made  up  from  letters  from  the  Masters,  it  is  to 
be  inferred  he  desires  it  to  be  understoed  that  the 
devachanic  period  is  in  each  and  every  case  fifteen 
centuries ;  but  to  do  away  with  that  misapprehension 
his  informants  wrote  at  a  later  date  that  that  is  the 
average  period  and  not  a  fixed  one.  Such  must  be 
the  truth,  for  as  we  see  that  men  differ  in  respe<5t  to 
the  periods  of  time  they  remain  in  any  state  of  mind 
in  life  due  to  the  varying  intensities  of  their  thoughts, 
so  it  must  be  in  devachan  where  thought  has  a  greater 
force  though  always  due  to  the  being  who  had  the 
thoughts. 

What  the  Master  did  say  on  this  is  as  follows :  '  'The 
'  dream  of  devachan '  lasts  until  karma  is  satisfied  in 
that  direction.  In  devachan  there  is  a  gradual  ex- 
haustion of  force.  The  stay  in  devachan  is  proportion- 
ate to  the  unexhausted  psychic  impulses  originated 
in  earth  life.  Those  whose  actions  were  preponder-* 


DEVACHAN    AND   CYCLE   OF   RE?N CARNATION.       1 13 

atingly  material  will  be  sooner  brought  back  into  re- 
birth by  the  force  of  Tanha  ".  Tanha  is  the  thirst  for 
life.  He  therefore  who  has  not  in  life  originated 
many  psychic  impulses  will  have  but  little  basis  or 
force  in  his  essential  nature  to  keep  his  higher  prin- 
ciples in  devachan.  About  all  he  will  have  are  those 
originated  in  childhood  before  he  began  to  fix  his 
thoughts  on  materialistic  thinking.  The  thirst  for 
life  expressed  by  the  word  Tanha  is  the  pulling  or 
magnetic  force  lodged  in  the  skandhas  inherent  in  all 
beings.  In  such  a  case  as  this  the  average  rule  does 
not  apply,  since  the  whole  effe<5l  either  way  is  due  to 
a  balancing  of  forces  and  is  the  outcome  of  action 
and  reaction.  And  this  sort  of  materialistic  thinker 
may  emerge  out  of  devachan  into  another  body  here 
in  a  month,  allowing  for  the  unexpended  psychic 
forces  originated  in  early  life.  But  as  every  one  of 
such  persons  varies  as  to  class,  intensity  and  quant- 
tity  of  thought  and  psychic  impulse,  each  may  vary 
in  respe<5l  to  the  time  of  stay  in  devachan.  Desperately 
materialistic  thinkers  will  remain  in  the  devachanic 
condition  stupified  or  asleep,  as  it  were,  as  they  have 
no  forces  in  them  appropriate  to  that  state  save  in  a 
very  vague  fashion,  and  for  them  it  can  be  very  truly 
said  that  there  is  nc  state  after  death  so  far  as  mind 
is  concerned ;  they  are  torpid  for  a  while,  and  then 
they  live  again  on  earth.  This  general  average  of 
the  stay  in  devachan  gives  us  the  length  of  a  very  im- 
portant human  cycle,  the  Cycle  of  Reincarnation. 
For  under  that  law  national  development  will  be 
found  to  repeat  itself,  and  the  times  that  are  past 
will  be  found  to  come  again. 

The  last  series  of  powerful  and  deeply  imprinted 
thoughts  are  those  which  give  color  and  trend  to  the 
whole  life  in  devachan.  The  last  moment  will  color 
each  subsequent  moment.  On  those  the  soul  and 
mind  fix  themselves  and  weave  of  them  a  whole  set 
of  events  and  experiences,  expanding  them  to  their 
highest  limit,  carrying  out  all  that  was  not  possible 


114  THE     OCEAN     OF  THEOSOPHY. 

in  life  Thus  expanding  and  weaving  these  thoughts 
the  entity  has  its  youth  and  growth  and  growing  old, 
that  is,  the  uprush  of  the  force,  its  expansion,  and  its 
dying  down  to  final  exhaustion.  If  the  person  has 
led  a  colorless  life  the  devachan  will  be  colorless ;  if  a 
rich  life,  then  it  will  be  rich  in  variety  and  effe6l. 
Existence  there  is  not  a  dream  save  in  a  conventional 
sense,  for  it  is  a  stage  of  the  life  of  man,  and  when 
we  are  there  this  present  life  is  a  dream.  It  is  not 
in  any  sense  monotonous.  We  are  too  prone  to  meas- 
ure all  possible  states  of  life  and  places  for  experi- 
ence by  our  present  earthly  one  and  to  imagine  it  to 
be  reality.  But  the  life  of  the  soul  is  endless  and  not 
to  be  stopped  for  one  instant.  Leaving  our  physical 
body  is  but  a  transition  to  another  place  or  plane  for 
living  in.  But  as  the  ethereal  garments  of  devachan 
are  more  lasting  than  those  we  wear  here,  the  spir- 
itual, moral,  and  psychic  causes  use  more  time  in 
expanding  and  exhausting  in  that  state  than  they 
do  on  earth.  If  the  molecules  that  form  the  physical 
body  were  not  subje6l  to  the  general  chemical  laws 
that  govern  physical  earth,  then  we  should  live. as 
long  in  these  bodies  as  we  do  in  the  devachanic  state. 
But  such  a  life  of  endless  strain  and  suffering  would 
be  enough  to  blast  the  soul  compelled  to  undergo  it. 
Pleasure  would  then  be  pain,  and  surfeit  would  end 
but  in  an  immortal  insanity.  Nature,  always  kind, 
leads  us  soon  again  into  heaven  for  a  rest,  for  the 
flowering  of  the  best  and  highest  in  our  natures. 

Devachan  is  then  neither  meaningless  nor  useless. 
' '  In  it  we  are  rested ;  that  part  of  us  which  could  not 
bloom  under  the  chilling  skies  of  earth-life  bursts 
forth  into  flower  and  goes  back  with  us  to  earth-life 
stronger  and  more  a  part  of  our  nature  than  before. 
Why  should  we  repine  that  Nature  kindly  aids  us 
in  the  interminable  struggle,  why  keep  the  mind  re- 
volving about  the  present  petty  personality  and  its 
good  and  evil  fortunes?"* 

*  Letter  from  Mahatma  K.  H.    See  Path  p.  191,  VoL  5. 


DO   WE  SEE   OUR   FRIENDS  IN   DEVACHAN?         115 

But  it  is  sometimes  asked,  what  of  those  we  have 
left  behind:  do  we  see  them  there?  We  do  not  see 
them  there  in  fact,  but  we  make  to  ourselves  their 
images  as  full,  complete,  and  objective  as  in  life,  and 
devoid  of  all  that  we  then  thought  was  a  blemish. 
We  live  with  them  and  see  them  grow  great  and  good 
instead  of  mean  or  bad.  The  mother  who  has  left  a 
drunken  son  behind  finds  him  before  her  in  devachan 
a  sober,  good  man,  and  likewise  through  all  possible 
cases,  parent,  child,  husband,  and  wife  have  their 
loved  ones  there  perfe6l  and  full  of  knowledge.  This 
is  for  the  benefit  of  the  soul.  You  may  call  it  a  de- 
lusion if  you  will,  but  the  illusion  is  necessary  to 
happiness  just  as  it  often  is  in  life.  And  as  it  is  the 
mind  that  makes  the  illusion,  it  is  no  cheat.  Cer- 
tainly the  idea  of  a  heaven  built  over  the  verge  of 
hell  where  you  must  know,  if  any  brains  or  memory 
are  left  to  you  under  the  modern  orthodox  scheme, 
that  your  erring  friends  and  relatives  are  suffering 
eternal  torture,  will  bear  no  comparison  with  the 
do6lrine  of  devachan.  But  entities  in  devachan  are  not 
wholly  devoid  of  power  to  help  those  left  on  earth. 
Love,  the  master  of  life,  if  real,  pure,  and  deep,  will 
sometimes  cause  the  happy  Ego  in  devachan  to  affect 
those  left  on  earth  for  their  good,  not  only  in  the 
moral  field  but  also  in  that  of  material  circumstance. 
This  is  possible  under  a  law  of  the  occult  universe 
which  cannot  be  explained  now  with  profit,  but  the 
fact  may  be  stated.  It  has  been  given  out  before 
this  by  H.  P.  Blavatsky,  without,  however,  much  at- 
tention being  drawn  to  it. 

The  last  question  to  consider  is  whether  we  here 
can  reach  those  in  devachan  or  do  they  come  here. 
We  cannot  reach  them  nor  affect  them  unless  we  are 
Adepts.  The  claim  of  mediums  to  hold  communion 
with  the  spirits  of  the  dead  is  baseless,  and  still  less 
valid  is  the  claim  of  ability  to  help  those  who  have 
gone  to  devachan.  The  Mahatma,  a  being  who  has 
developed  all  his  powers  and  is  free  from  illusion, 


Il6  THE   OCEAN    OF   THEOSOPHY. 

can  go  into  the  devachanic  state  and  then  communi 
cate  with  the  Egos  there.  Such  is  one  of  their  func- 
tions, and  that  is  the  only  school  of  the  Apostles  after 
death.  They  deal  with  certain  entities  in  devachan 
for  the  purpose  of  getting  them  out  of  the  state  so 
as  to  return  to  earth  for  the  benefit  of  the  race.  The 
Egos  they  thus  deal  with  are  those  whose  nature  is 
great  and  deep  but  who  are  not  wise  enough  to  be 
able  to  overcome  the  natural  illusions  of  devachan. 
Sometimes  also  the  hypersensitive  and  pure  medium 
goes  into  this  state  and  then  holds  communication 
with  the  Egos  there,  but  it  is  rare,  and  certainly  will 
not  take  place  with  the  general  run  of  mediums  who 
trade  for  money.  But  the  soul  never  descends  here 
to  the  medium.  And  the  gulf  between  the  con- 
sciousness of  devachan  and  that  of  earth  is  so  deep 
and  wide  that  it  is  but  seldom  the  medium  can  remem- 
ber upon  returning  to  recollection  here  what  or  whom 
it  met  or  saw  or  heard  in  devachan.  This  gulf  is  sim- 
ilar to  that  which  separates  devachan  from  rebirth ;  it 
is  one  in  which  all  memory  of  what  preceded  it  is 
blotted  out. 

The  whole  period  allotted  by  the  soul's  forces  being 
ended  in  dcvachan,  the  magnetic  threads  which  bind  it 
to  earth  begin  to  assert  their  power.  The  Self  wakes 
from  the  dream,  it  is  borne  swiftly  off  to  a  new  body, 
and  then,  just  before  birth,  it  sees  for  a  moment  all 
the  causes  that  led  it  to  devachan  and  back  to  the  life 
it  is  about  to  begin,  and  knowing  it  to  be  all  just, 
to  be  the  result  of  its  own  past  life,  it  repines  not 
but  takes  up  the  cross  again — and  another  soul  has 
come  back  to  earth. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

JHE  doctrine  of  Cycles  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant in  the  whole  theosophical  system, 
though  the  least  known  and  of  all  the  one 
most  infrequently  referred  to.  Western  in- 
vestigators have  for  some  centuries  suspected  that 
events  move  in  cycles,  and  a  few  of  the  writers  in 
the  field  of  European  literature  have  dealt  with  the 
subject,  but  all  in  a  very  incomplete  fashion.  This 
incompleteness  and  want  of  accurate  knowledge  have 
been  due  to  the  lack  of  belief  in  spiritual  things  and 
the  desire  to  square  everything  with  materialistic 
science.  Nor  do  I  pretend  to  give  the  cyclic  law  in 
full,  for  it  is  one  that  is  not  given  out  in  detail  by  the 
Masters  of  Wisdom.  But  enough  has  been  divulged, 
and  enough  was  for  a  long  time  known  to  the  An- 
cients to  add  considerably  to  our  knowledge. 

A  cycle  is  a  ring  or  turning,  as  the  derivation  of 
the  word  indicates.  The  corresponding  words  in  the 
Sanscrit  are  Yuga,  Kalpa,  Manvantara,  but  of  these 
yuga  comes  nearest  to  cycle,  as  it  is  lesser  in  duration 
than  the  others.  The  beginning  of  a  cycle  must  be 
a  moment,  that  added  to  other  moments  makes  a  day, 
and  those  added  together  constitute  months,  years, 
decades,  and  centuries.  Beyond  this  the  West  hardly 
goes.  It  recognizes  the  moon  cycle  and  the  great 
sidereal  one,  but  looks  at  both  and  upon  the  others 
merely  as  periods  of  time.  If  we  are  to  consider 
them  as  but  lengths  of  time  there  is  no  profit  except 
to  the  dry  student  or  to  the  astronomer.  And  in  this 
way  to-day  they  are  regarded  by  European  and  Amer- 
ican thinkers,  who  say  cycles  exist  but  have  no  very 
great  bearing  on  human  life  and  certainly  no  bearing 
on  the  actual  recurrence  of  events  or  the  reappear- 


Il8  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

ance  on  the  stage  of  life  of  persons  who  once  lived 
in  the  world.  The  theosophical  theory  is  distinctly 
otherwise,  as  it  must  be  if  it  carries  out  the  doctrine 
of  reincarnation  to  which  in  preceding  pages  a  good 
deal  of  attention  has  been  given.  Not  only  are  the 
cycles  named  actual  physical  facts  in  respect  to  time, 
but  they  and  other  periods  have  a  very  great  effect 
on  human  life  and  the  evolution  of  the  globe  with  all 
the  forms  of  life  thereon.  Starting  with  the  moment 
and  proceeding  through  a  day,  this  theory  erects  the 
cycle  into  a  comprehensive  ring  which  includes  all 
in  its  limits.  The  moment  being  the  basis,  the  ques- 
tion to  be  settled  in  respect  to  the  great  cycles  is, 
When  did  the  first  moment  come?  This  cannot  be 
answered,  but  it  can  be  said  that  the  truth  is  held  by 
the  ancient  theosophists  to  be  that  at  the  first  mo- 
ments of  the  solidification  of  this  globe  the  mass  of 
matter  involved  attained  a  certain  and  definite  rate 
of  vibration  which  will  hold  through  all  variations  in 
any  part  of  it  until  its  hour  for  dissolution  comes. 
These  rates  of  vibration  are  what  determine  the  dif- 
ferent cycles,  and,  contrary  to  the  ideas  of  western 
science,  the  doctrine  is  that  the  solar  system  and  the 
globe  we  are  now  on  will  come  to  an  end  when  the 
force  behind  the  whole  mass  of  seen  and  unseen  mat- 
ter has  reached  its  limit  of  duration  under  cyclic  law. 
Here  our  doctrine  is  again  different  from  both  the  re- 
ligious and  scientific  one.  We  do  not  admit  that  the 
ending  of  the  force  is  the  withdrawal  by  a  God  of 
his  protection,  nor  the  sudden  propulsion  by  him  of 
another  force  against  the  globe,  but  that  the  force  at 
work  and  determining  the  great  cycle  is  that  of  man 
himself  considered  as  a  spiritual  being;  when  he  is 
done  using  the  globe  he  leaves  it,  and  then  with  him 
goes  out  the  force  holding  all  together;  the  conse- 
quence is  dissolution  by  fire  or  water  or  what  not, 
these  phenomena  being  simply  effects  and  not  causes. 
The  ordinary  scientific  speculations  on  this  head  are 
that  the  earth  may  fall  into  the  sun,  or  that  a  comet 


CIVILIZATION   CYCLES   BACK. 

of  density  may  destroy  the  globe,  or  that  we  may  col- 
lide with  a  greater  planet  known  or  unknown.  These 
dreams  are  idle  for  the  present. 

Reincarnation  being  the  great  law  of  life  and  prog- 
ress, it  is  interwoven  with  that  of  the  cycles  and 
karma.  These  three  work  together,  and  in  practice 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  disentangle  reincarnation 
from  cyclic  law.  Individuals  and  nations  in  definite 
streams  return  in  regularly  recurring  periods  to  the 
earth,  and  thus  bring  back  to  the  globe  the  arts,  the 
civilization,  the  very  persons  who  once  were  on  it  at 
work.  And  as  the  units  in  nation  and  race  are  con- 
nected together  by  invisible  strong  threads,  large 
bodies  of  such  units  moving  slowly  hut  surely  all  to- 
gether reunite  at  different  times  and  emerge  again 
and  again  together  into  new  race  and  new  civilization 
as  the  cycles  roll  their  appointed  rounds.  Therefore 
the  souls  who  made  the  most  ancient  civilizations 
will  come  back  and  bring  the  old  civilization  with 
them  in  idea  and  essence,  which  being  added  to  what 
others  have  done  for  the  development  of  the  human 
race  in  its  character  and  knowledge  will  produce  a 
new  and  higher  state  of  civilization.  '/  This  newer  and 
better  development  will  not  be  due  to  books,  to  rec- 
ords, to  arts  or  mechanics,  because  all  those  are  peri- 
odically destroyed  so  far  as  physical  evidence  goes, 
but  the  soul  ever  retaining  in  Manas  the  knowledge 
it  once  gained  and  always  pushing  to  completer  de- 
velopment the  higher  principles  and  powers,  the  es- 
sence of  progress  remains  and  will  as  surely  come 
out  as  the  sunshines.  And  along  this  road  are  the 
points  when  the  small  and  large  cycles  of  Avatars 
bring  out  for  man's  benefit  the  great  characters  who 
mould  the  race  from  time  to  time. 

The  Cycle  of  Avatars  includes  several  smaller 
ones.  The  greater  are  those  marked  by  the  appear- 
ance of  Rama  and  Krishna  among  the  Hindus,  of 
Menes  among  the  Egyptians,  of  Zoroaster  among 
the  Persians,  and  of  Buddha  to  the  Hindus  and  other 


120  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

nations  of  the  East.  Buddha  is  the  last  of  the  great 
Avatars  and  is  in  a  larger  cycle  than  is  Jesus  of  the 
Jews,  for  the  teachings  of  the  latter  are  the  same  as 
those  of  Buddha  and  tinctured  with  what  Buddha 
had  taught  to  those  who  instructed  Jesus.  An- 
other great  Avatar  is  yet  to  come,  corresponding  to 
Buddha  and  Krishna  combined.  Krishna  and  Rama 
were  of  the  military,  civil,  religious,  and  occult  or- 
der ;  Buddha  of  the  ethical,  religious,  and  mystical, 
in  which  he  was  followed  by  Jesus ;  Mohammed  was 
a  minor  intermediate  one  for  a  certain  part  of  the 
race,  and  was  civil,  military,  and  religious.  In  these 
cycles  we  can  include  mixed  characters  who  have 
had  great  influence  on  nations,  such  as  King  Arthur, 
Pharaoh,  Moses,  Charlemagne  reincarnated  as  Napo- 
leon Buonaparte,  Clovis  of  France  reborn  as  Emperor 
Frederic  III  of  Germany,  and  Washington  the  first 
President  of  the  United  States  of  America  where 
the  root  for  the  new  race  is  being  formed. 

At  the  intersection  of  the  great  cycles  dynamic  ef- 
fects follow  and  alter  the  surface  of  the  planet  by 
reason  of  the  shifting  of  the  poles  of  the  globe  or 
other  convulsion.  This  is  not  a  theory  generally  ac- 
ceptable, but  we  hold  it  to  be  true.  Man  is  a  great 
dynamo,  making,  storing,  and  throwing  out  energy, 
and  when  masses  of  men  composing  a  race  thus  make 
and  distribute  energy,  there  is  a  resulting  dynamic 
effect  on  the  material  of  the  globe  which  will  be  pow- 
erful enough  to  be  distinct  and  cataclysmic.  That 
there  have  been  vast  and  awful  disturbances  in  the 
strata  of  the  world  is  admitted  on  every  hand  and 
now  needs  no  proof ;  these  have  been  due  to  earth- 
quakes and  ice  formation  so  far  as  concerns  geology ; 
but  in  respect  to  animal  forms  the  cyclic  law  is  that 
certain  animal  forms  now  extinct  and  also  certain 
human  ones  not  known  but  sometimes  suspected  will 
return  again  in  their  own  cycle ;  and  certain  human 
languages  now  known  as  dead  will  be  in  use  once 
more  at  their  appointed  cyclic  hour. 


THE   GREAT   SIDEREAL  CYCLE.  121 

"The  Metonic  cycle  is  that  of  the  Moon.  It  is  a 
period  of  about  nineteen  years,  which  being  com- 
pleted the  new  and  the  full  moons  return  on  the  same 
days  of  the  month." 

' '  The  cycle  of  the  Sun  is  a  period  of  twenty  eight 
years,  which  having  elapsed  the  Dominical  or  Sun- 
day letters  return  to  their  former  place  and  proceed 
in  the  former  order  according  to  the  Julian  calendar." 

The  great  Sidereal  year  is  the  period  taken  by  the 
equinoctial  points  to  make  in  their  precession  a  com- 
plete revolution  of  the  heavens.  It  is  composed  of 
25,868  solar  years  almost.  It  is  said  that  the  last  si- 
dereal year  ended  about  9,868  years  ago,  at  which 
time  there  must  have  been  on  this  earth  a  violent 
convulsion  or  series  of  such,  as  well  as  distributions 
of  nations.  The  completion  of  this  grand  period 
brings  the  earth  into  newer  spaces  of  the  cosmos, 
not  in  respect  to  its  own  orbit,  but  by  reason  of  the 
actual  progress  of  the  sun  in  an  orbit  of  its  own  that 
cannot  be  measured  by  any  observer  of  the  present 
day,  but  which  is  guessed  at  by  some  and  located  in 
one  of  the  constellations. 

Affecting  man  especially  are  the  spiritual,  psy- 
chic, and  moral  cycles,  and  out  of  these  grow  the 
national,  racial,  and  individual  cycles.  Race  and 
national  cycles  are  both  historical.  The  individual 
cycles  are  of  reincarnation,  of  sensation,  and  of  im- 
pression. The  length  of  the  individual  reincarna- 
tion cycle  for  the  general  mass  of  men  is  fifteen 
hundred  years,  and  this  in  its  turn  gives  us  a  large 
historical  cycle  related  closely  to  the  progress  of 
civilization.  For  as  the  masses  of  persons  return 
from  devachan,  it  must  follow  that  the  Roman,  the 
Greek,  the  old  Aryan,  and  other  Ages  will  be  seen 
again  and  can  to  a  very  great  extent  be  plainly  traced. 
But  man  is  also  affected  by  astronomical  cycles  be- 
cause he  is  an  integral  part  of  the  whole,  and  these 
cycles  mark  the  periods  when  mankind  as  a  whole 
will  undergo  a  change.  In  the  sacred  books  of  all 


122  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

nations  these  are  often  mentioned,  and  are  in  the  Bi- 
ble of  the  Christians,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  story  of 
Jonah  in  the  belly  of  the  whale.  This  is  an  absurd- 
ity when  read  as  history,  but  not  so  as  an  astronom- 
ical cycle.  "Jonah"  is  in  the  constellations,  and 
when  that  astronomical  point  which  represents  man 
reaches  a  point  in  the  Zodiac  which  is  directly  oppos- 
ite the  belly  of  Cetus  or  the  whale  on  the  other  side 
of  the  circle,  by  what  is  known  as  the  process  of  op- 
position, then  Jonah  is  said  to  be  in  the  centre  of  the 
fish  and  is  "thrown  out"  at  the  expiration  of  the 
period  when  that  man-point  has  passed  so  far  along 
in  the  Zodiac  as  to  be  out  of  opposition  to  the  whale. 
Similarly  as  the  same  point  moves  thus  through  the 
Zodiac  it  is  brought  by  opposition  into  the  different 
constellations  that  are  exactly  opposite  from  century 
to  century  while  it  moves  along.  During  these  prog- 
resses changes  take  place  among  men  and  on  earth 
exactly  signified  by  the  constellations  when  those  are 
read  according  to  the  right  rules  of  symbology.  It 
is  not  claimed  that  the  conjunction  causes  the  effect, 
but  that  ages  ago  the  Masters  of  Wisdom  worked  out 
all  the  problems  in  respect  to  man  and  found  in  the 
heavens  the  means  for  knowing  the  exact  dates  when 
events  are  sure  to  recur,  and  then  by  imprinting  in 
the  minds  of  older  nations  the  symbology  of  the  Zo- 
diac were  able  to  preserve  the  record  and  the  proph- 
ecy. Thus  in  the  same  way  that  a  watchmaker  can 
tell  the  hour  by  the  arrival  of  the  hands  or  the  works 
of  the  watch  at  certain  fixed  points,  the  Sages  can 
tell  the  hour  for  events  by  the  Zodiacal  clock.  This 
is  not  of  course  believed  to-day,  but  it  will  be  well 
understood  in  future  centuries,  and  as  the  nations  of 
the  earth  have  all  similar  symbols  in  general  for  the 
Zodiac,  and  as  also  the  records  of  races  long  dead 
have  the  same,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  vandal-spirit 
of  the  western  nineteenth  century  will  be  able  to  ef- 
face this  valuable  heritage  of  our  evolution.  In 
Egypt  the  Denderah  Zodiac  tells  the  same  tale  as 


CAUSES   FOR   CATACLYSMS.  1 23 

that  one  left  to  us  by  the  old  civilization  of  the 
American  continent,  and  all  of  these  are  from  the 
same  source,  they  are  the  work  of  the  Sages  who 
come  at  the  beginning  of  the  great  human  cycle  and 
give  to  man  when  he  begins  his  toilsome  ascent  up 
the  road  of  development  those  great  symbols  and 
ideas  of  an  astronomical  character  which  will  last 
through  all  the  cycles. 

In  regard  to  great  cataclysms  occurring  at  the  be- 
ginning and  ending  of  the  great  cycles,  the  main 
laws  governing  the  effects  are  those  of  Karma  and 
Reembodiment,  or  Reincarnation,  proceeding  under 
cyclic  rule.  Not  only  is  man  ruled  by  these  laws, 
but  every  atom  of  matter  as  well,  and  the  mass  of 
matter  is  constantly  undergoing  a  change  at  the 
same  time  with  man.  It  must  therefore  exhibit  al- 
terations corresponding  to  those  through  which  the 
thinker  is  going.  On  the  physical  plane  effects  are 
brought  out  through  the  electrical  and  other  fluids 
acting  with  the  gases  on  the  solids  of  the  globe.  At 
the  change  of  a  great  cycle  they  reach  what  may  be 
termed  the  exploding  point  and  cause  violent  con- 
vulsions of  the  following  classes:  (a)  Earthquakes, 
(b)  Floods,  (c)  Fire,  (d)  Ice. 

Earthquakes  may  be  brought  on  according  to  this 
philosophy  by  two  general  causes ;  first,  subsidence 
or  elevation  under  the  earth-crust  due  to  heat  and 
steam,  second,  electrical  and  magnetic  changes  which 
affect  water  and  earth  at  the  same  time.  These  last 
have  the  power  to  instantaneously  make  the  earth 
fluidic  without  melting  it,  thus  causing  immense  and 
violent  displacements  in  large  or  small  waves.  And 
this  effect  is  sometimes  seen  now  in  earthquake  dis- 
tricts when  similar  electrical  causes  are  at  work  in  a 
smaller  measure. 

Floods  of  general  extent  are  caused  by  displace- 
ment of  water  from  the  subsidence  or  elevation  of 
land,  and  by  those  combined  with  electrical  change 
which  induces  a  copious  discharge  of  moisture.  The 


124  THE    OCEAN    OF   THEOSOPHV. 

latter  is  not  a  mere  emptying  of  a  cloud,  but  a  sudden 
turning  of  vast  bodies  of  fluids  and  solids  into  water. 

Universal  fires  come  on  from  electrical  and  mag- 
netic changes  in  the  atmosphere  by  which  the  moist- 
ure is  withdrawn  from  the  air  and  the  latter  turned 
into  a  fiery  mass;  and,  secondly,  by  the  sudden 
expansion  of  the  solar  magnetic  centre  into  seven 
such  centres,  thus  burning  the  globe. 

Ice  cataclysms  come  on  not  only  from  the  sudden 
alteration  of  the  poles  but  also  from  lowered  temper- 
ature due  to  the  alteration  of  the  warm  fluid  currents 
in  the  sea  and  the  hot  magnetic  currents  in  the  earth, 
the  first  being  known  to  science,  the  latter  not.  The 
lower  stratum  of  moisture  is  suddenly  frozen,  and 
vast  tracts  of  land  covered  in  a  night  with  many  feet 
of  ice.  This  can  easily  happen  to  the  British  Isles  if 
the  warm  currents  of  the  ocean  are  diverted  from  its 
shores. 

Both  Egyptians  and  Greeks  had  their  cycles,  but 
in  our  opinion  derived  them  from  the  Indian  Sages. 
The  Chinese  always  were  a  nation  of  astronomers, 
and  have  recorded  observations  reaching  far  back  of 
the  Christian  era,  but  as  they  belong  to  an  old  race 
which  is  doomed  to  extinction — strange  as  the  asser- 
tion may  appear — their  conclusions  will  not  be  correct 
for  the  Aryan  races.  On  the  coming  of  the  Christ- 
ian era  a  heavy  pall  of  darkness  fell  on  the  minds  of 
men  in  the  West,  and  India  was  for  many  centuries 
isolated  so  as  to  preserve  these  great  ideas  during  the 
mental  night  of  Europe.  This  isolation  was  brought 
about  deliberately  as  a  necessary  precaution  taken  by 
that  great  Lodge  to  which  I  adverted  in  Chapter  I, 
because  its  Adepts,  knowing  the  cyclic  laws  perfectly, 
wished  to  preserve  philosophy  for  future  generations. 
As  it  would  be  mere  pedantry  and  speculation  to  dis- 
cuss the  unknown  Saros  and  Naros  and  other  cycles 
of  the  Egyptians,  I  will  give  the  Brahmanical  ones, 
since  they  tally  almost  exactly  with  the  correct 
periods. 


THE    YUGAS   AND   DIVINE   YEARS.  12$ 

A  period  or  exhibition  of  universal  manifestation 
is  called  a  Brahmarandrha,  that  is  a  complete  life  of 
Brahma,  and  Brahma's  life  is  made  of  his  days  and 
years,  which,  being  cosmical  are  each  of  immense 
duration.  His  day  is  as  man's  24  odd  hours  long,  his 
year  360  odd  days,  the  number  of  his  years  is  100. 

Taking  now  this  globe — since  we  are  concerned 
with  no  other — its  government  and  evolution  pro- 
ceed under  Manu  or  man,  and  from  this  is  the  term 
Manvantara  or  "between  two  Manus".  The  course 
of  evolution  is  divided  into  four  Yugas  for  every  race 
in  its  own  time  and  way.  These  Yugas  do  not  affect 
all  mankind  at  one  and  the  same  time,  as  some  races 
are  in  one  of  the  Yugas  while  others  are  in  a  differ- 
ent cycle.  The  Red  Indian,  for  instance,  is  in  the 
end  of  his  stone  age,  while  the  Aryans  are  in  quite  a 
different  state.  These  four  Yugas  are:  Krita,  or 
Satya^  the  golden;  Treta;  Dvapara;  and  Kali  or  the 
black.  The  present  age  for  the  West  and  India  is 
Kali  Yuga,  especially  in  respect  to  moral  and  spirit- 
ual development.  The  first  of  these  is  slow  in  com- 
parison with  the  rest,  and  the  present — Kali — is  very- 
rapid,  its  motion  being  accelerated  precisely  like  cer- 
tain astronomical  periods  known  to-day  in  regard  to 
the  Moon,  but  not  fully  worked  out. 
TABLE. 


MORTAL  YEARS. 


360  (odd)  mortal  days  make. I 

Krita  Yuga has 1,728,000 

Treta  Yuga " 1,296,000 

Dvapara   Yuga  " 864,000 

Kali  Yuga " 432,000 

Maha  Yuga,  or  the  four  preceding,  has 4,320,000 

71  Maha  Yugas  form  the  reign  of  one  Manu,  or. . .  .306,720,000 

14  Manus  are 4,294,080,000 

Add  the  dawns  or  twilights  between  each  Manu. ....  .25,920,000 

These  reigns  and  dawns  make  1000  Maha  Yu- 
gas, a  Kalpa,  or  Day  of  Brahma 4,320,000,000 

Brahma' s  Night  equals  his  Day  and  Day  and 

Night  together  make 8,640,000,000 

360  of  these  Days  make  Brahma' s  Year 3,110,400,000,000 

loo  of  these  Years  make  Brahma's  Life 311,040,000,000,000 


1 26  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

The  first  5000  years  of  Kali  Yuga  will  end  between 
the  years  1897  and  1898.  This  Yuga  began  about 
3102  years  before  the  Christian  era,  at  the  time  of 
Krishna's  death.  As  1897-98  are  not  far  off,  the  sci- 
entific men  of  to-day  will  have  an  opportunity  of  see- 
ing whether  the  close  of  the  five  thousand  year  cycle 
will  be  preceded  or  followed  by  any  convulsions  or 
great  changes  political,  scientific,  or  physical,  or  all 
of  these  combined.  Cyclic  changes  are  now  proceed- 
ing as  year  after  year  the  souls  from  prior  civiliza- 
tions are  being  incarnated  in  this  period  when  liberty 
of  thought  and  action  are  not  so  restricted  in  the 
West  as  they  have  been  in  the  past  by  dogmatic  re- 
ligious prejudice  and  bigotry.  And  at  the  present 
time  we  are  in  a  cycle  of  transition,  when,  as  a  transi- 
tion period  should  indicate,  everything  in  philosophy, 
religion,  and  society  is  changing.  In  a  transition 
period  the  full  and  complete  figures  and  rules  res- 
pecting cycles  are  not  given  out  to  a  .generation 
which  elevates  money  above  all  thoughts  and  scoffs 
at  the  spiritual  view  of  man  and  nature. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

ETWEEN  Science  and  Theosophy  there  is  a 
wide  gulf,  for  the  present  unbridged,  on 
the  question  of  the  origin  of  man  and  the 
differentiation  of  species.  The  teachers  of 
religion  in  the  West  offer  on  this  subject  a  theory, 
dogmatically  buttressed  by  an  assumed  revelation, 
as  impossible  as  the  one  put  forward  by  scientific 
men.  And  yet  the  religious  expounders  are  nearer 
than  science  to  the  truth.  Under  the  religious  su- 
perstition about  Adam  and  Eve  is  hidden  the  truth, 
and  in  the  tales  of  Cain,  Seth,  and  Noah  is  vaguely 
shadowed  the  real  story  of  the  other  races  of  men, 
Adam  being  but  the  representative  of  one  single  race. 
The  people  who  received  Cain  and  gave  him  a  wife 
were  some  of  those  human  races  which  had  appeared 
simultaneously  with  the  one  headed  by  Adam. 

The  ultimate  origin  or  beginning  of  man  is  not  to 
be  discovered,  although  we  may  know  when  and  from 
where  the  men  of  this  globe  came.  Man  never  was 
not.  If  not  on  this  globe,  then  on  some  others,  he 
ever  was,  and  will  ever  be  in  existence  somewhere 
in  the  Cosmos.  Ever  perfecting  and  reaching  up  to 
the  image  of  the  Heavenly  Man,  he  is  always  becom- 
ing. But  as  the  human  mind  cannot  go  back  to  any 
beginning,  we  shall  start  with  this  globe.  Upon  this 
earth  and  upon  the  whole  chain  of  globes  of  which 
it  is  a  part  seven  races  of  men  appeared  simultan- 
eously, coming  over  to  it  from  other  globes  of  an 
older  chain.  And  in  respect  to  this  earth — the  fourth 
of  this  chain — these  seven  races  came  simultaneously 
from  another  globe  of  this  chain.  This  appearance 
of  seven  races  together  happens  in  the  first  and  in 
part  of  the  second  round  of  the  globes.  In  the 


128  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

second  round  the  seven  masses  of  beings  are  amal- 
gamated, and  their  destiny  after  that  is  to  slowly 
differentiate  during  the  succeeding  rounds  until  at 
the  seventh  round  the  seven  first  great  races  will  be 
once  more  distinct,  as  perfect  types  of  the  human 
race  as  this  period  of  evolution  will  allow.  At  the 
present  time  the  seven  races  are  mixed  together,  and 
representatives  of  all  are  in  the  many  so-called  races 
of  men  as  classified  by  our  present  science.  The 
object  of  this  amalgamation  and  subsequent  differ- 
entiation is  to  give  to  every  race  the  benefit  of  the 
progress  and  power  of  the  whole  derived  from  prior 
progress  in  other  planets  and  systems.  For  Nature 
never  does  her  work  in  a  hasty  or  undue  fashion,  but, 
by  the  sure  method  of  mixture,  precipitation,  and 
separation,  brings  about  the  greatest  perfection. 
And  this  method  was  one  known  to  the  Alchemists, 
though  not  fully  understood  in  all  its  bearings  even 
by  them. 

Hence  man  did  not  spring  from  a  single  pair. 
Neither  did  he  come  from  any  tribe  or  family  of 
monkey.  It  is  hopeless  to  look  to  either  religion  or 
science  for  a  solution  of  the  question,  for  science  is 
confused  on  her  own  admission,  and  religion  is  tan- 
gled with  a  revelation  that  in  its  books  controverts 
the  theory  put  forward  by  the  priest.  Adam  is  called 
the  first  man,  but  the  record  in  which  the  story  is 
found  shows  that  other  races  of  men  must  have 
existed  on  the  earth  before  Cain  could  have  have 
founded  a  city.  The  Bible,  then,  does  not  support 
the  single  pair  theory.  If  we  take  up  one  of  the 
hypotheses  of  Science  and  admit  for  the  moment 
that  man  and  monkey  differentiated  from  one  ances- 
tor, we  have  then  to  decide  where  the  first  ancestor 
came  from.  The  first  postulate  of  the  Lodge  on  this 
subject  is  that  seven  races  of  men  appeared  simul- 
taneously on  the  earth,  and  the  first  negative  assump- 
tion is  that  man  did  not  spring  from  a  single  pair 
or  from  the  animal  kingdom. 


ANTHROPOIDS    ARE    DELAYED    RACES. 

The  varieties  of  character  and  capacity  which  sub- 
sequently appear  in  man's  history  are  the  forthcom- 
ing of  the  variations  which  were  induced  in  the  Egos 
in  other  and  long  anterior  periods  of  evolution  upon 
other  chains  of  globes.  These  variations  were  so 
deeply  impacted  as  to  be  equivalent  to  inherent 
characteristics.  For  the  races  of  this  globe  the  prior 
period  of  evolution  was  passed  on  the  chain  of  globes 
of  which  our  moon  is  the  visible  representative. 

The  burning  question  of  the  anthropoid  apes  as  re- 
lated to  man  is  settled  by  the  Masters  of  Wisdom,  who 
say  that  instead  of  those  being  our  progenitors  they 
were  produced  by  man  himself.  In  one  of  the  early 
periods  of  the  globe  the  men  of  that  time  begot  from 
large  females  of  the  animal  kingdom  the  anthropoids, 
and  in  anthropoid  bodies  were  caught  a  certain  num- 
ber of  Egos  destined  one  day  to  be  men.  The  re- 
mainder of  the  descendants  of  the  true  anthropoid 
are  the  descendants  of  those  illegitimate  children  of 
men,  and  will  die  away  gradually,  their  Egos  enter- 
ing human  bodies.  Those  half-ape  and  half-man 
bodies  could  not  be  ensouled  by  strictly  animal  Egos, 
and  for  that  reason  they  are  known  to  the  Secret 
Doctrine  as  the  "Delayed  Race",  the  only  one  not 
included  in  the  fiat  of  Nature  that  no  more  Egos  from 
the  lower  kingdoms  will  come  into  the  human  king- 
dom until  the  next  Manvantara.  But  to  all  kingdoms 
below  man  except  the  anthropoids,  the  door  is  now 
closed  for  entry  into  the  human  stage,  and  the  Egos 
in  the  subordinate  forms  must  all  wait  their  turn  in 
the  succeeding  great  Cycle.  And  as  the  delayed 
Egos  of  the  Anthropoid  family  will  emerge  into  the 
man  stage  later  on,  they  will  thus  be  rewarded  for 
the  long  wait  in  that  degraded  race.  All  the  other 
monkeys  are  products  in  the  ordinary  manner  of  the 
evolutionary  processes. 

On  this  subject  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  the 
words  of  one  of  those  Masters  of  Wisdom,  giving  the 
esoteric  anthropology  from  the  secret  volumes,  thus: 


130  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

The  anatomical  resemblance  between  Man  and  the  higher 
Ape,  so  frequently  cited  by  the  Darwinists  as  pointing  to  some 
former  ancestor  common  to  both,  presents  an  interesting  prob- 
lem the  proper  solution  of  which  is  to  be  sought  for  in  the  eso- 
teric explanation  of  the  genesis  of  the  pithecoid  stocks.  We 
have  given  it  so  far  as  was  useful  by  stating  that  the  bestiality 
of  the  primeval  mindless  races  resulted  in  the  production  of 
huge  man-like  monsters — the  offspring  of  human  and  animal 
parents.  As  time  rolled  on  and  the  still  semi-astral  forms  con- 
solidated into  the  physical,  the  descendants  of  these  creatures 
were  modified  by  external  conditions  until  the  breed,  dwindling 
in  size,  culminated  in  the  lower  Apes  of  the  Miocene  period. 
With  these  the  later  Atlanteans  renewed  the  sin  of  the  "Mind- 
less"— this  time  with  full  responsibility.  The  resultants  of  their 
crime  were  the  species  now  known  as  the  Anthropoid.  .  .  . 
Let  us  remember  the  esoteric  teaching  which  tells  us  of  Man 
having  had  in  the  Third  Round  a  gigantic  Ape-like  form  on 
the  astral  plane.  And  similarly  at  the  close  of  the  Third  Race 
in  this  Round.  Thus  it  accounts  for  the  human  features  of  the 
Apes,  especially  of  the  later  Anthropoids, — apart  from  the  fact 
that  these  latter  preserved  by  heredity  a  resemblance  to  their 
Atlanto-Lemurian  sires. 

The  same  teachers  furthermore  assert  that  the 
mammalian  types  were  produced  in  the  fourth 
round,  subsequent  to  the  appearance  of  the  human 
types.  For  this  reason  there  was  no  barrier  against 
fertility,  because  the  root-types  of  those  mammals 
were  not  far  enough  removed  to  raise  the  natural 
barrier.  The  unnatural  union  in  the  third  race, 
when  man  had  not  yet  had  the  light  of  Manas  given 
to  him,  was  not  a  crime  against  Nature,  since,  no 
mind  being  present  save  in  the  merest  germ,  no  res- 
ponsibility could  attach.  But  in  the  fourth  round, 
the  light  of  Manas  being  present,  the  renewal  of  the 
a<5l  by  the  new  race  was  a  crime,  because  it  was  done 
with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  consequences  and 
against  the  warning  of  conscience.  The  karmic  ef- 
fect of  this,  including  as  it  does  all  races,  has  yet  to 
be  fully  felt  and  understood — at  a  much  later  day 
than  now. 

As  man  came  to  this  globe  from  another  planet, 
though  of  course  then  a  being  of  very  great  power 
before  being  completely  enmeshed  in  matter,  so  the 


INTELLIGENT    AID    IN    EVOLUTION.  131 

lower  kingdoms  came  likewise  in  germ  and  type  from 
other  planets,  and  carry  on  their  evolution  step  by 
step  upward  by  the  aid  of  man,  who  is,  in  all  periods 
of  manifestation,  at  the  front  of  the  wave  of  life. 
The  Egos  in  these  lower  kingdoms  could  not  finish 
their  evolution  in  the  preceding  globe-chain  before 
its  dissolution,  and  coming  to  this  they  go  forward 
age  after  age,  gradually  approaching  nearer  the  man 
stage.  One  day  they  too  will  become  men  and  act 
as  the  advance  guard  and  guide  for  other  lower  king- 
doms of  this  or  other  globes.  And  in  the  coming 
from  the  former  planet  there  are  always  brought 
with  the  first  and  highest  class  of  beings  some  forms 
of  animal  life,  some  fruits  and  other  products,  as 
models  or  types  for  use  here.  It  will  not  be  profit- 
able to  go  into  this  here  with  particularity,  for  being 
too  far  ahead  of  the  time  it  would  evoke  only  ridi- 
cule from  some  and  stupidity  from  others.  But  the 
general  forms  of  the  various  kingdoms  being  so 
brought  over,  we  have  next  to  consider  how  the  dif- 
ferentiation of  animal  and  other  lower  species  began 
and  was  carried  on. 

This  is  the  point  where  intelligent  aid  and  interfer- 
ence from  a  mind  or  mass  of  minds  is  absolutely 
necessary.  Such  aid  and  interference  was  and  is  the 
fact,  for  Nature  unaided  cannot  do  the  work  right. 
But  I  do  not  mean  that  God  or  angel  interferes  and 
aids.  It  is  Man  who  does  this.  Not  the  man  of  the 
day,  weak  and  ignorant  as  he  is,  but  great  souls, 
high  and  holy  men  of  immense  power,  knowledge, 
and  wisdom.  Just  such  as  every  man  would  now 
know  he  could  become,  if  it  were  not  that  religion 
on  one  hand  and  science  on  the  other  have  painted 
such  a  picture  of  our  weakness,  inherent  evil  and 
purely  material  origin  that  nearly  all  men  think 
they  are  puppets  of  God  or  cruel  fate  without  hope, 
or  remain  with  a  degrading  and  selfish  aim  in  view 
both  here  and  after.  Various  names  have  been 
given  to  these  beings  now  removed  from  pur  plane. 


132  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

They  are  the  Dhyanis,  the  Creators,  the  Guides,  the 
Great  Spirits,  and  so  on  by  many  titles.  In  theo- 
sophical  literature  they  are  called  the  Dhyanis. 

By  methods  known  to  themselves  and  to  the  Great 
Lodge  they  work  on  the  forms  so  brought  over,  and 
by  adding  here,  taking  away  there,  and  often  alter- 
ing, they  gradually  transform  by  such  alteration  and 
addition  the  kingdoms  of  nature  as  well  as  the  gradu- 
ally forming  gross  body  of  man.  This  process  is  car- 
ried on  chiefly  in  the  purely  astral  period  preceding 
the  gross  physical  stage,  as  the  impulses  thus  given 
will  surely  carry  themselves  forward  through  the 
succeeding  times.  When  the  midway  point  of  evo- 
lution is  reached  the  species  emerge  on  to  the  present 
stage  and  not  showing  the  connection  to  the  eye  of 
man  nor  to  our  instruments.  The  investigations  of 
the  day  have  traced  certain  species  down  to  a  point 
where,  as  is  confessed,  it  is  not  known  to  what  root 
they  go  back.  Taking  oxen  on  one  side  and  horses 
on  the  other,  we  see  that  both  are  hoofed,  but  one 
has  a  split  hoof  and  the  other  but  one  toe.  These 
bring  us  back,  when  we  reach  the  oldest  ancestor  of 
each,  to  the  midway  point,  and  there  science  has  to 
stop.  At  this  spot  the  wisdom  of  the  Masters  comes 
in  to  show  that  back  of  this  is  the  astral  region  of  an- 
cient evolution,  where  were  the  root-types  in  which 
the  Dhyanis  began  the  evolution  by  alteration  and 
addition  which  resulted  in  the  differentiation  after- 
wards on  this  gross  plane  into  the  various  families, 
species,  and  genera. 

A  vast  period  of  time,  about  300,000,000  years, 
was  passed  by  earth  and  man  and  all  the  kingdoms 
of  nature  in  an  astral  stage.  Then  there  was  no  gross 
matter  such  as  we  now  know.  This  was  in  the  early 
rounds  when  Nature  was  proceeding  slowly  with  the 
work  of  perfecting  the  types  on  the  astral  plane, 
which  is  matter,  though  very  fine  in  its  texture.  At 
the  end  of  that  stretch  of  years  the  process  of  hard- 
ening began,  the  form  of  man  being  the  first  to  be- 


WHY   MISSING    LINKS   UNDISCOVERABLE.  133 

come  solid,  and  then  some  of  the  astral  prototypes 
of  the  preceding  rounds  were  involved  in  the  solid- 
ification, though  really  belonging  to  a  former  period 
when  everything  was  astral.  When  those  fossils  are 
discovered  it  is  argued  that  they  must  be  those  of 
creatures  which  coexisted  with  the  gross  physical 
body  of  man. 

While  that  argument  is  proper  enough  under  the 
other  theories  of  Science,  it  becomes  only  an  as- 
sumption if  the  existence  of  the  astral  period  be  ad- 
mitted. It  would  be  beyond  the  scope  of  this  work 
to  go  further  into  particulars.  But  it  may  incident- 
ally be  said  that  neither  the  bee  nor  the  wheat  could 
have  had  their  original  differentiation  in  this  chain 
of  globes,  but  must  have  been  produced  and-  finished 
in  some  other  from  which  they  were  brought  over 
into  this.  Why  this  should  be  so  I  am  willing  to 
leave  for  the  present  to  conjecture. 

To  the  whole  theory  it  may  be  objected  that  Sci- 
ence has  not  been  able  to  find  the  missing  links  be- 
tween the  root-types  of  the  astral  period  and  the 
present  fossils  or  living  species.  In  the  year  1893  at 
Moscow  Professor  Virchow  said  in  a  lecture  that  the 
missing  link  was  as  far  off  as  ever,  as  much  of  a 
dream  as  ever,  and  that  no  real  evidence  was  at  hand 
to  show  man  as  coming  from  the  animals.  This  is 
quite  true,  and  neither  class  of  missing  link  will  be 
discovered  by  Science  under  her  present  methods. 
For  all  of  them  exist  in  the  astral  plane  and  there- 
fore are  invisible  to  the  physical  eye.  They  can  only 
be  seen  by  the  inner  astral  senses,  which  must  first 
be  trained  to  do  their  work  properly,  and  until  Sci- 
ence admits  the  existence  of  the  astral  and  inner 
senses  she  will  never  try  to  develop  them.  Always, 
then,  Science  will  be  without  the  instruments  for 
discovering  the  astral  links  left  on  the  astral  plane 
in  the  long  course  of  differentiation.  The  fossils 
spoken  of  above,  which  were,  so  to  say,  solidified 
out  of  date,  form  an  exception  to  the  impossibility 


134  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

of  finding  any  missing-  links,  but  they  are  blind  alleys 
to  Science  because  she  admits  none  of  the  necessary 
facts. 

The  object  of  all  this  differentiation,  amalgama- 
tion, and  separation  is  well  stated  by  another  of  the 
Masters,  thus: 

Nature  consciously  prefers  that  matter  should  be  indestruct- 
ible in  organic  rather  than  inorganic  forms,  and  works  slowly 
but  incessantly  towards  the  realization  of  this  object — the  evo- 
lution of  conscious  life  out  of  inert  material 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

]HE  field  of  psychic  forces,  phenomena,  and 
dynamics  is  a  vast  one.  Such  phenomena 
are  seen  and  the  forces  exhibited  every  day 
in  all  lands,  but  until  a  few  years  ago  very 
little  attention  was  given  to  them  by  scientific  per- 
sons, while  a  great  deal  of  ridicule  was  heaped  upon 
those  who  related  the  occurrences  or  averred  belief 
in  the  psychic  nature.  A  cult  sprang  up  in  the 
United  States  some  forty  years  ago  calling  itself 
quite  wrongly  "spiritualism",  but  having  a  great 
opportunity  it  neglected  it  and  fell  into  mere  won- 
der-seeking without  the  slightest  shadow  of  a  phil- 
osophy. It  has  accomplished  but  little  in  the  way 
of  progress  except  a  record  of  many  undigested  facts 
which  for  four  decades  failed  to  attract  the  serious 
attention  of  people  in  general.  While  it  has  had  its 
uses,  and  includes  in  its  ranks  many  good  minds,  the 
great  dangers  and  damages  coming  to  the  human  in- 
struments involved  and  to  those  who  sought  them 
more  than  offset  the  good  done  in  the  opinion  of 
those  disciples  of  the  Lodge  who  would  have  man 
progress  evenly  and  without  ruin  along  his  path  of 
evolution.  But  other  Western  investigators  of  the 
accepted  schools  have  not  done  much  better,  and  the 
result  is  that  there  is  no  Western  Psychology  worthy 
of  the  name. 

This  lack  of  an  adequate  system  of  Psychology  is 
a  natural  consequence  of  the  materialistic  bias  of 
science  and  the  paralyzing  influence  of  dogmatic  re- 
ligion; the  one  ridiculing  effort  and  blocking  the 
way,  the  other  forbidding  investigation.  The  Ro- 
man Catholic  branch  of  the  Christian  Church  is  in 
some  respects  an  exception,  however.  It  has  always 


136  TIIE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

admitted  the  existence  of  the  psychic  world — for  it 
the  realm  of  devils  and  angels,  but  as  angels  man- 
ifest when  they  choose  and  devils  are  to  be  shunned, 
no  one  is  permitted  by  that  Church  to  meddle  in  such 
matters  except  an  authorized  priest.  So  far  as  that 
Church's  prohibiting  the  pernicious  practise  of  nec- 
romancy indulged  in  by  "spiritualists"  it  was  right, 
but  not  in  its  other  prohibitions  and  restrictions. 
Real  psychology  is  an  Oriental  product  to-day.  Very 
true  the  system  was  known  in  the  West  when  a  very 
ancient  civilization  flourished  in  America,  and  in  cer- 
tain parts  of  Europe  anterior  to  the  Christian  era, 
but  for  the  present  day  psychology  in  its  true  phase 
belongs  to  the  Orient. 

Are  there  psychic  forces,  laws,  and  powers?  If 
there  are,  then  there  must  be  the  phenomena.  And 
if  all  that  has  been  outlined  in  preceding  chapters  is 
true,  then  in  man  are  the  same  powers  and  forces 
which  are  to  be  found  anywhere  in  Nature.  He  is 
held  by  the  Masters  of  Wisdom  to  be  the  highest 
producl;  of  the  whole  system  of  evolution,  and  mir- 
rors in  himself  every  power,  however  wonderful  or 
terrible,  of  Nature ;  by  the  very  f  act  of  being  such  a 
mirror  he  is  man. 

This  has  long  been  recognized  in  the  East,  where 
the  writer  has  seen  exhibitions  of  such  powers  which 
would  upset  the  theories  of  many  a  Western  man  of 
science.  And  in  the  West  the  same  phenomena  have 
been  repeated  for  the  writer,  so  that  he  knows  of  his 
own  knowledge  that  every  man  of  every  race  has  the 
same  powers  potentially.  The  genuine  psychic — or, 
as  they  are  often  called,  magical — phenomena  done 
by  the  Eastern  faquir  or  yogee  are  all  performed  by 
the  use  of  natural  forces  and  processes  not  even 
dreamed  of  as  yet  by  the  West.  Levitation  of  the 
body  in  apparent  defiance  of  gravitation  is  a  thing  to 
be  done  with  ease  when  the  process  is  completely 
mastered.  It  contravenes  no  law.  Gravitation  is  only 
half  of  a  law.  The  Oriental  sage  admits  gravity, 


LAWS   OF    POLARITY    AND   COHESION.  137 

if  one  wishes  to  adopt  the  term ;  but  the  real  term  is 
attraction,  the  other  half  of  the  law  being  expressed 
by  the  word  repulsion,  and  both  being  governed  by 
the  great  laws  of  electrical  force.  Weight  and  sta- 
bility depend  on  polarity,  and  when  the  polarity  of 
an  object  is  altered  in  respect  to  the  earth  immedi- 
ately underneath  it,  then  the  object  may  rise.  But 
as  mere  objects  are  devoid  of  the  consciousness  found 
in  man,  they  cannot  rise  without  certain  other  aids. 
The  human  body,  however,  will  rise  in  the  air  unsup- 
ported, like  a  bird,  when  its  polarity  is  thus  changed. 
This  change  is  brought  about  consciously  by  a  certain 
system  of  breathing  known  to  the  Oriental ;  it  may 
be  induced  also  by  aid  from  certain  natural  forces 
spoken  of  later,  in  the  cases  of  those  who  without 
knowing  the  law  perform  the  phenomena,  as  with, 
the  saints  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

A  third  great  law  which  enters  into  many  of  the 
phenomena  of  the  East  and  West  is  that  of  Cohe- 
sion. The  power  of  Cohesion  is  a  distinct  power  of 
itself,  and  not  a  result  as  is  supposed.  This  law  and. 
its  action  must  be  known  if  certain  phenomeria  are  to 
be  brought  about,  as,  for  instance,  what  the  writer 
has  seen,  the  passing  of  one  solid  iron  ring  through 
another,  or  a  stone  through  a  solid  wall.  Hence  an- 
other force  is  used  which  can  only  be  called  disper- 
sion. Cohesion  is  the  dominating  force,  for,  the 
moment  the  dispersing  force  is  withdrawn,  the  co- 
hesive force  restores  the  particles  to  their  original 
position. 

Following  this  out  the  Adept  in  such  great  dynam- 
ics is  able  to  disperse  the  atoms  of  an  object — ex» 
eluding  always  the  human  body — to  such  a  distance 
from  each  other  as  to  render  the  object  invisible,  and 
then  can  send  them  along  a  current  formed  in  the 
ether  to  any  distance  on  the  earth.  At  the  desired 
point  the  dispersing  force  is  withdrawn,  when  imme- 
diately cohesion  reasserts  itself  and  the  object  reap- 
pears intact.  This  may  sound  like  fiction,  but  being 


138  THE   OCEAN   OF    THEOSOPHV. 

known  to  the  Lodge  and  its  disciples  as  an  actual 
f  act,  it  is  equally  certain  that  Science  will  sooner  or 
later  admit  the  proposition. 

But  the  lay  mind  infested  by  the  materialism  of 
the  day  wonders  how  all  these  manipulations  are  pos- 
sible, seeing  that  no  instruments  are  spoken  of.  The 
instruments  are  in  the  body  and  brain  of  man.  In 
the  view  of  the  Lodge  ' '  the  human  brain  is  an  ex- 
haustless  generator  of  force",  and  a  complete  know- 
ledge of  the  inner  chemical  and  dynamic  laws  of 
Nature,  together  with  a  trained  mind,  give  the  pos- 
sessor the  power  to  operate  the  laws  to  which  I  have 
referred.  This  will  be  man's  possession  in  the  fu- 
ture, and  would  be  his  to-day  were  it  not  for  blind 
dogmatism,  selfishness,  and  materialistic  unbelief. 
Not  even  the  Christian  lives  up  to  his  Master's  very 
true  statement  that  if  one  had  faith  he  could  remove 
a  mountain.  A  knowledge  of  the  law  when  added 
to  faith  gives  power  over  matter,  mind,  space,  and 
time. 

Using  the  same  powers,  the  trained  Adept  can 
produce  before  the  eye,  objective  to  the  touch,  ma- 
terial which  was  not  visible  before,  and  in  any  de- 
sired shape.  This  would  be  called  creation  by  the 
vulgar,  but  it  is  simply  evolution  in  your  very  pres- 
ence. Matter  is  held  suspended  in  the  air  about  us. 
Every  particle  of  matter,  visible  or  still  unprecipi- 
tated,  has  been  through  all  possible  forms,  and  what 
the  Adept  does  is  to  select  any  desired  form,  exist- 
ing, as  they  all  do,  in  the  Astral  Light  and  then  by 
effort  of  the  Will  and  Imagination  to  clothe  the  form 
with  the  matter  by  precipitation.  The  object  so 
made  will  fade  away  unless  certain  other  processes 
are  resorted  to  which  need  not  be  here  described, 
but  if  these  processes  are  used  the  object  will  re- 
main permanently.  And  if  it  is  desired  to  make  vis- 
ible a  message  on  paper  or  other  surface,  the  same 
laws  and  powers  are  used.  The  distinct — photo- 
graphically and  sharply  definite — image  of  every  line 


IMAGINATION    IS   ALL-POWERFUL.  139 

of  every  letter  or  picture  is  formed  in  the  mind,  and 
then  out  of  the  air  is  drawn  the  pigment  to  fall 
within  the  limits  laid  down  by  the  brain,  "the  ex- 
haustless  generator  of  force  and  form".  All  these 
things  the  writer  has  seen  done  in  the  way  described, 
and  not  by  any  hired  or  irresponsible  medium,  and 
he  knows  whereof  he  speaks. 

This,  then,  naturally  leads  to  the  proposition  that 
the  human  Will  is  all  powerful  and  the  Imagination 
is  a  most  useful  faculty  with  a  dynamic  force.  The 
Imagination  is  the  picture-making  power  of  the  hu- 
man mind.  In  the  ordinary  average  human  person 
it  has  not  enough  training  or  force  to  be  more  than  a 
sort  of  dream,  but  it  may  be  trained.  When  trained 
it  is  the  Constructor  in  the  Human  Workshop.  Ar- 
rived at  that  stage  it  makes  a  matrix  in  the  Astral 
substance  through  which  effects  objectively  will  flow. 
It  is  the  greatest  power,  after  Will,  in  the  human  as- 
semblage of  complicated  instruments.  The  modern 
Western  definition  of  Imagination  is  incomplete  and 
wide  of  the  mark.  It  is  chiefly  used  to  designate 
fancy  or  misconception  and  at  all  times  stands  for  un- 
reality. It  is  impossible  to  get  another  term  as  good 
because  one  of  the  powers  of  the  trained  Imagination 
is  that  of  making  an  image.  The  word  is  derived 
from  those  signifying  the  formation  or  reflection  of 
an  image.  This  faculty  used,  or  rather  suffered  to 
act,  in  an  unregulated  mode  has  given  the  West  no 
other  idea  than  that  covered  by  "fancy".  So  far  as 
that  goes  it  is  right  but  it  may  be  pushed  to  a  greater 
limit,  which,  when  reached  causes  the  Imagination 
to  evolve  in  the  Astral  substance  an  actual  image  or 
form  which  may  be  then  used  in  the  same  way  as  an 
iron  moulder  uses  a  mould  of  sand  for  the  molten 
iron.  It  is  therefore  the  King  faculty,  inasmuch  as 
the  Will  cannot  do  its  work  if  the  Imagination  be  at 
all  weak  or  untrained.  For  instance,  if  the  person 
dvsiring  to  precipitate  from  the  air  wavers  in  the 
least  with  the  image  made  in  the  Astral  substance, 


I4O  THE   OCEAN   OF   THEOSOPHY. 

the  pigment  will  fall  upon  the  paper  in  a  correspond- 
ingly wavering  and  diffused  manner. 

To  communicate  with  another  mind  at  any  dis- 
tance the  Adept  attunes  all  the  molecules  of  the 
brain  and  all  the  thoughts  of  the  mind  so  as  to  vi- 
brate in  unison  with  the  mind  to  be  affected,  and 
that  other  mind  and  brain  have  also  to  be  either  vol- 
untarily thrown  into  the  same  unison  or  fall  into  it 
voluntarily.  So  though  the  Adept  be  at  Bombay 
and  his  friend  in  New  York,  the  distance  is  no  ob- 
stacle, as  the  inner  senses  are  not  dependent  on  an 
ear,  but  may  feel  and  see  the  thoughts  and  images 
in  the  mind  of  the  other  person. 

And  when  it  is  desired  to  look  into  the  mind  and 
catch  the  thoughts  of  another  and  the  pictures  all 
around  him  of  all  he  has  thought  and  looked  at,  the 
Adept's  inner  sight  and  hearing  are  directed  to  the 
mind  to  be  seen,  when  at  once  all  is  visible.  But,  as 
said  before,  only  a  rogue  would  do  this,  and  the 
Adepts  do  not  do  it  except  in  strictly  authorized 
cases:  The  modern  man  sees  no  misdemeanor  in 
looking  into  the  secrets  of  another  by  means  of  this 
power,  but  the  Adepts  say  it  is  an  invasion  of  the 
rights  of  the  other  person.  No  man  has  the  right, 
even  when  he  has  the  power  in  his  hand,  to  enter 
into  the  mind  of  another  and  pick  out  its  secrets. 
This  is  the  law  of  the  Lodge  to  all  who  seek,  and  if 
one  sees  that  he  is  about  to  discover  the  secrets  of 
another  he  must  at  once  withdraw  and  proceed  no 
further.  If  he  proceeds  his  power  is  taken  from  him 
in  the  case  of  a  disciple ;  in  the  case  of  any  other  per- 
son he  must  take  the  consequence  of  this  sort  of 
burglary.  For  Nature  has  her  laws  and  her  police- 
men, and  if  we  commit  felonies  in  the  Astral  world 
the  great  Law  and  the  guardians  of  it,  for  which  no 
bribery  is  possible,  will  execute  the  penalty,  no  mat- 
ter how  long  we  wait,  even  if  it  be  for  ten  thousand 
years.  Here  is  another  safeguard  for  ethics  and 
morals.  But  until  men  admit  the  system  of  philoso- 


APPORTATION,    CLAIRVOYANCE,    ETC.  14! 

phy  put  forward  in  this  book,  they  will  not  deem  it 
wrong  to  commit  felonies  in  fields  where  their  weak 
human  law  has  no  effect,  but  at  the  same  time  by  thus 
refusing  the  philosophy  they  will  put  off  the  day  when 
all  may  have  these  great  powers  for  the  use  of  all. 

Among  phenomena  useful  to  notice  are  those  con- 
sisting of  the  moving  of  objects  without  physical 
contact.  This  may  be  done,  and  in  more  than  one 
way.  The  first  is  to  extrude  from  the  physical  body 
the  Astral  hand  and  arm,  and  with  those  grasp  the 
object  to  be  moved.  This  may  be  accomplished  at  a 
distance  of  as  much  as  ten  feet  from  the  person.  I 
do  not  go  into  argument  on  this,  only  referring  to 
the  properties  of  the  Astral  substance  and  members. 
This  will  serve  to  some  extent  to  explain  several  of 
the  phenomena  of  mediums.  In  nearly  all  cases  of 
such  apportation  the  feat  is  accomplished  by  thus 
using  the  unseen  but  material  Astral  hand.  The 
second  method  is  to  use  the  elementals  of  which  I 
have  spoken.  They  have  the  power  when  directed 
by  the  inner  man  to  carry  objects  by  changing  the 
polarity,  and  then  we  see,  as  with  the  fakirs  of  India 
and  some  mediums  in  America,  small  objects  moving 
apparently  unsupported.  These  elemental  entities 
are  used  when  things  are  brought  from  longer  dis- 
tances than  the  length  to  which  the  Astral  members 
may  be  stretched.  It  is  no  argument  against  this 
that  mediums  do  not  know  they  do  so.  They  rarely 
if  ever  know  anything  about  how  they  accomplish 
any  feat,  and  their  ignorance  of  the  law  is  no  proof 
of  its  non-existence.  Those  students  who  have  seen 
the  forces  work  from  the  inside  will  need  no  argu- 
ment on  this. 

Clairvoyance,  clairaudiance,  and  second-sight  are 
all  related  very  closely.  Every  exercise  of  any  one 
of  them  draws  in  at  the  same  time  both  of  the  others. 
They  are  but  variations  of  one  power.  Sound  is  one 
of  the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  Astral 
sphere,  and  as  light  goes  with  sound,  sight  obtains 


142  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

simultaneously  with  hearing.  To  see  an  image  with 
the  Astral  senses  means  that  at  the  same  time  there 
is  a  sound,  and  to  hear  the  latter  infers  the  presence 
of  a  related  image  in  Astral  substance.  It  is  per- 
fectly  well  known  to  the  true  student  of  occultism 
that  every  sound  produces  instantaneously  an  image, 
and  this,  so  long  known  in  the  Orient,  has  lately  been 
demonstrated  in  the  West  in  the  production  to  the 
eye  of  sound  pictures  on  a  stretched  tympanum. 
This  part  of  the  subject  can  be  gone  into  very  much 
further  with  the  aid  of  occultism,  but  as  it  is  a  dan- 
gerous one  in  the  present  state  of  society  I  refrain  at 
this  point.  In  the  Astral  Light  are  pictures  of  all 
things  whatsoever  that  happened  to  any  person,  and 
as  well  also  pictures  of  those  events  to  come  the 
causes  for  which  are  sufficiently  well  marked  and 
made.  If  the  causes  are  yet  indefinite,  so  will  be  the 
images  of  the  future.  But  for  the  mass  of  events 
for  several  years  to  come  all  the  producing  and  effi- 
cient causes  are  always  laid  down  with  enough  defi- 
niteness  to  permit  the  seer  to  see  them  in  advance 
as  if  present.  By  means  of  these  pictures,  seen 
with  the  inner  senses,  all  clairvoyants  exercise  their 
strange  faculty.  Yet  it  is  a  faculty  common  to  all 
men,  though  in  the  majority  but  slightly  developed ; 
but  occultism  asserts  that  were  it  not  for  the  germ  of 
this  power  slightly  active  in  every  one  no  man  could 
convey  to  another  any  idea  whatsoever. 

In  clairvoyance  the  pictures  in  the  Astral  Light 
pass  before  the  inner  vision  and  are  reflected  into  the 
physical  eye  from  within.  They  then  appear  object- 
ively to  the  seer.  If  they  are  of  past  events  or  those 
to  come,  the  picture  only  is  seen ;  if  of  events  actually 
then  occurring,  the  scene  is  perceived  through  the 
Astral  Light  by  the  inner  sense.  The  distinguishing 
difference  between  ordinary  and  clairvoyant  vision 
is,  then,  that  in  clairvoyance  with  waking  sight  the 
vibration  is  communicated  to  the  brain  first,  from 
which  it  is  transmitted  to  the  physical  eye,  where  it 


INNER   STIMULI   CAUSE   OUTER   PERCEPTION.        143 

sets  up  an  image  upon  the  retina,  just  as  the  revol- 
ving- cylinder  of  the  phonograph  causes  the  mouth- 
piece to  vibrate  exactly  as  the  voice  had  vibrated 
when  thrown  into  the  receiver.  In  ordinary  eye  vis- 
ion the  vibrations  are  given  to  the  eye  first  and  then 
transmitted  to  the  brain.  Images  and  sounds  are 
both  caused  by  vibrations,  and  hence  any  sound  once 
made  is  preserved  in  the  Astral  Light  from  whence 
the  inner  sense  can  take  it  and  from  within  transmit 
it  to  the  brain,  from  which  it  reaches  the  physical 
ear.  So  in  clairaudiance  at  a  distance  the  hearer 
does  not  hear  with  the  ear,  but  with  the  centre  of 
hearing  in  the  Astral  body.  Second-sight  is  a  com- 
bination of  clairaudiance  and  clairvoyance  or  not, 
just  as  the  particular  case  is,  and  the  frequency  with 
which  future  events  are  seen  by  the  second-sight  seer 
adds  an  element  of  prophecy. 

The  highest  order  of  clairvoyance — that  of  spirit- 
ual vision — is  very  rare.  The  usual  clairvoyant  deals 
only  with  the  ordinary  aspects  and  strata  of  the  As- 
tral matter.  Spiritual  sight  comes  only  to  those  who 
are  pure,  devoted,  and  firm.  It  may  be  attained  by 
special  development  of  the  particular  organ  in  the 
body  through  which  alone  such  sight  is  possible,  and 
only  after  discipline,  long  training,  and  the  highest 
altruism.  All  other  clairvoyance  is  transitory,  inad- 
equate, and  fragmentary,  dealing,  as  it  does,  only 
with  matter  and  illusion.  Its  fragmentary  and  inad- 
equate character  results  from  the  fact  that  hardly 
any  clairvoyant  has  the  power  to  see  into  more  than 
one  of  the  lower  grades  of  Astral  substance  at  any 
one  time.  The  pure-minded  and  the  brave  can  deal 
with  the  future  and  the  present  far  better  than  any 
clairvoyant.  But  as  the  existence  of  these  two  pow- 
ers proves  the  presence  in  us  of  the  inner  senses  and 
of  the  necessary  medium — the  Astral  Light,  they 
have,  as  such  human  faculties,  an  important  bearing 
upon  the  claims  made  by  the  so-called  "spirits"  of 
the  stance  room, 


144  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

Dreams  are  sometimes  the  result  of  brain  action 
automatically  proceeding,  and  are  also  produced  by 
the  transmission  into  the  brain  by  the  real  inner  per- 
son of  those  scenes  or  ideas  high  or  low  which  that 
real  person  has  seen  while  the  body  slept.  They  are 
then  strained  into  the  brain  as  if  floating  on  the  soul 
as  it  sinks  into  the  body.  These  dreams  may  be  of 
use,  but  generally  the  resumption  of  bodily  activity 
destroys  the  meaning,  perverts  the  image,  and  re- 
duces all  to  confusion.  But  the  great  fact  of  all 
dreaming  is  that  some  one  perceives  and  feels 
therein,  and  this  is  one  of  the  arguments  for  the  in- 
ner person's  existence.  In  sleep  the  inner  man 
communes  with  higher  intelligences,  and  sometimes 
succeeds  in  impressing  the  brain  with  what  is  gained, 
either  a  high  idea  or  a  prophetic  vision,  or  else  fails 
in  consequence  of  the  resistance  of  brain  fibre.  The 
karma  of  the  person  also  determines  the  meaning  of 
a  dream,  for  a  king  may  dream  that  which  relates  to 
his  kingdom,  while  the  same  thing  dreamed  by  a 
citizen  relates  to  nothing  of  temporal  consequence. 
But,  as  said  by  Job:  "In  dreams  and  visions  of  the 
night  man  is  instructed  ". 

Apparitions  and  doubles  are  of  two  general  classes. 
The  one,  astral  shells  or  images  from  the  astral  world, 
either  actually  visible  to  the  eye  or  the  result  of  vi- 
bration within  thrown  out  to  the  eye  and  thus  making 
the  person  think  he  sees  an  objective  form  without. 
The  other,  the  astral  body  of  living  persons  and 
carrying  full  consciousness  or  only  partially  so  en- 
dowed. Laborious  attempts  by  Psychical  Research 
Societies  to  prove  apparitions  without  knowing  these 
laws  really  prove  nothing,  for  out  of  twenty  admitted 
cases  nineteen  may  be  the  objectivization  of  the 
image  impressed  on  the  brain.  But  that  apparitions 
have  been  seen  there  is  no  doubt.  Apparitions  of 
those  just  dead  may  be  either  pictures  made  object- 
ive as  described,  or  the  Astral  Body — called  Kama 
Rupa  at  this  stage — of  the  deceased.  And  as  the 


THE   OCCULT   COSMOS   BEHIND   ALL.  145 

dying  thoughts  and  forces  released  from  the  body  are 
very  strong,  we  have  more  accounts  of  such  appa- 
ritions than  of  any  other  class. 

The  Adept  may  send  out  his  apparition,  which, 
however,  is  called  by  another  name,  as  it  consists  of 
his  conscious  and  trained  astral  body  endowed  with 
all  his  intelligence  and  not  wholly  detached  from  his 
physical  frame. 

Theosophy  does  not  deny  nor  ignore  the  physical 
laws  discovered  by  science.  It  admits  all  such  as 
are  proven,  but  it  asserts  the  existence  of  others 
which  modify  the  action  of  those  we  ordinarily  know. 
Behind  all  the  visible  phenomena  is  the  occult  cos- 
mos with  its  ideal  machinery;  that  occult  cosmos  can 
only  be  fully  understood  by  means  of  the  inner 
senses  which  pertain  to  it ;  those  senses  will  not  be 
easily  developed  if  their  existence  is  denied.  Brain 
and  mind  acting  together  have  the  power  to  evolve 
forms,  first  as  astral  ones  in  astral  substance,  and 
later  as  visible  ones  by  accretions  of  the  matter  on 
this  plane.  Objectivity  depends  largely  on  percep- 
tion, and  perception  may  be  affected  by  inner  stimuli. 
Hence  a  witness  may  either  see  an  object  which  act- 
ually exists  as  such  without,  or  may  be  made  to  see 
one  by  internal  stimulus.  This  gives  us  three  modes 
of  sight :  (a)  with  the  eye  by  means  of  light  from  an 
object,  (b)  with  the  inner  senses  by  means  of  the 
Astral  Light,  and  (c)  by  stimulus  from  within  which 
causes  the  eye  to  report  to  the  brain,  thus  throwing 
the  inner  image  without.  The  phenomena  of  the 
other  senses  may  be  tabulated  in  the  same  manner. 

The  Astral  substance  being  the  register  of  all 
thoughts,  sounds,  pictures,  and  other  vibrations,  and 
the  inner  man  being  a  complete  person  able  to  act 
with  or  without  coordination  with  the  physical,  all 
the  phenomena  of  hypnotism,  clairvoyance,  clair- 
audiance,  mediumship,  and  the  rest  of  those  which 
are  not  consciously  performed  may  be  explained.  In 
the  Astral  substance  are  all  sounds  and  pictures,  and 


146  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

in  the  Astral  man  remain  impressions  of  every  event, 
however  remote  or  insignificant;  these  acting  to- 
gether produce  the  phenomena  which  seem  so 
strange  to  those  who  deny  or  are  unaware  of  the 
postulates  of  occultism. 

But  to  explain  the  phenomena  performed  by 
Adepts,  Fakirs,  Yogees,  and  all  trained  occultists, 
one  has  to  understand  the  occult  laws  of  chemistry, 
of  mind,  of  force,  and  of  matter.  These  it  is  ob- 
viously not  the  province  of  such  a  work  as  this  to 
treat  in  detail. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

|N  the  history  of  psychical  phenomena  the 
records  of  so-called  "spiritualism"  in  Eu- 
rope, America,  and  elsewhere  hold  an  im- 
portant place.  Advisedly  I  say  that  no 
term  was  ever  more  misapplied  than  that  of  "spir- 
itualism" to  the  cult  in  Europe  and  America  just 
mentioned,  inasmuch  as  there  is  nothing  of  the  spirit 
about  it.  The  doctrines  given  in  preceding  chapters 
Are  those  of  true  spiritualism;  the  misnamed  prac- 
tises of  modern  mediums  and  so-called  spiritists 
constitute  the  Worship  of  the  Dead,  old-fashioned 
necromancy,  in  fact,  which  was  always  prohibited 
by  spiritual  teachers.  They  are  a  gross  materializ- 
ing of  the  spiritual  idea,  and  deal  with  matter  more 
Mian  with  its  opposite.  This  cult  is  supposed  by 
some  to  have  originated  about  forty  years  ago  in 
America  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  under  the  mediumship 
of  the  Fox  sisters,  but  it  was  known  in  Salem  dur- 
ing the  witchcraft  excitement,  and  in  Europe  one 
hundred  years  ago  the  same  practises  were  pursued, 
similar  phenomena  seen,  mediums  developed,  and 
stances  held.  For  centuries  it  has  been  well  known 
in  India  where  it  is  properly  designated  ' '  bhuta  wor- 
ship ",  meaning  the  attempt  to  communicate  with 
the  devil  or  Astral  remnants  of  deceased  persons. 
This  should  be  its  name  here  also,  for  by  it  the  gross 
and  devilish,  or  earthly,  parts  of  man  are  excited, 
appealed  to,  and  communicated  with.  But  the  facts 
of  the  long  record  of  forty  years  in  America  demand 
a  brief  examination.  These  facts  all  studious  The- 
osophists  must  admit.  The  theosophical  explanation 
and  deductions,  however,  are  totally  different  from 
those  of  the  average  spiritualist.  A  philosophy  has 


148  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

not  been  evolved  in  the  ranks  or  literature  of  spirit- 
ualism; nothing  but  theosophy  will  give  the  true 
explanation,  point  out  defects,  reveal  dangers,  and 
suggest  remedies 

As  it  is  plain  that  clairvoyance,  clairaudiance, 
thought-transference,  prophecy,  dream  and  vision, 
levitation,  apparitional  appearance,  are  all  powers 
that  have  been  known  for  ages,  the  questions  most 
pressing  in  respect  to  spiritualism  are  those  relating 
to  communication  with  the  souls  of  those  who  have 
left  this  earth  and  are  now  disembodied,  and  with 
unclassified  spirits  who  have  not  been  embodied  here 
but  belong  to  other  spheres.  Perhaps  also  the  ques- 
tion of  materialization  of  forms  at  stances  deserves 
some  attention.  Communication  includes  trance- 
speaking,  slate  and  other  writing,  independent  voices 
in  the  air,  speaking  through  the  physical  vocal  or- 
gans of  the  medium,  and  precipitation  of  written 
messages  out  of  the  air.  Do  the  mediums  commun- 
icate with  the  spirits  of  the  dead?  Do  our  departed 
friends  perceive  the  state  of  life  they  have  left,  and 
do  they  sometimes  return  to  speak  to  and  with  us? 

The  answers  are  intimated  in  foregoing  chapters. 
Our  departed  do  not  see  us  here.  They  are  relieved 
from  the  terrible  pang  such  a  sight  would  inflict. 
Once  in  a  while  a  pure-minded,  unpaid  medium  may 
ascend  in  trance  to  the  scate  in  which  a  deceased  soul 
is,  and  may  remember  some  bits  of  what  was  there 
heard ;  but  this  is  rare.  Now  and  then  in  the  course 
of  decades  some  high  human  spirit  may  for  a  mo- 
ment return  and  by  unmistakable  means  communi- 
cate with  mortals.  At  the  moment  of  death  the  soul 
may  speak  to  some  friend  on  earth  before  the  door  is 
finally  shut.  But  the  mass  of  communications  al- 
leged as  made  day  after  day  through  mediums  are 
from  the  astral  unintelligent  remains  of  men,  or  in 
many  cases  entirely  the  production  of,  invention, 
compilation,  discovery,  and  collocation  by  the  loosely 
attached  Astral  body  of  the  living  medium. 


OBJECTIONS   TO   SPIRIT    MESSAGES.  149 

Certain  objections  arise  to  the  theory  that  the  spir- 
its of  the  dead  communicate.  Some  are : 

I.  At  no  time  have  these  spirits  given  the  laws 
governing  any  of  the  phenomena,  except  in  a  few 
instances,  not  accepted  by  the  cult,  where  the  theo- 
sophical  theory  was  advanced.     As  it  would  destroy 
such  structures  as  those  creeled  by  A.  J.  Davis,  these 
particular  spirits  fell  into  discredit. 

II.  The  spirits  disagree  among   themselves,    one 
stating  the  after-life  to  be  very  different  from  the 
description  by  another.     These  disagreements  vary 
with  the  medium  and  the  supposed  theories  of  the 
deceased  during  life.     One  spirit  admits  reincarna- 
tion and  others  deny  it. 

III.  The  spirits  have  discovered  nothing  in  res- 
peel  to  history,   anthropology,    or  other  important 
matters,  seeming  to  have  less  ability  in  that  line  than 
living  men ;  and  although  they  often  claim  to  be  men 
who  lived  in  older  civilizations,  they  show  ignorance 
thereupon  or  merely  repeat  recently  published  dis- 
coveries. 

IV.  In  these  forty  years  no  rationale  of  phenomena 
nor  of  development  of  mediumship  has  been  obtained 
from  the  spirits.     Great  philosophers  are  reported  as 
speaking  through  mediums,  but  utter  only  drivel  and 
merest  commonplaces. 

V.  The  mediums  come  to  physical    and    moral 
grief,  are  accused  of  fraud,  are  shown  guilty  of  trick- 
ery, but  the  spirit  guides  and  controls  do  not  inter- 
fere to  either  prevent  or  save. 

VI.  It  is  admitted  that  the  guides  and   controls 
deceive  and  incite  to  fraud. 

VII.  It  is  plainly  to  be  seen  through  all  that  is 
reported  of  the  spirits  that  their  assertions  and  phil- 
osophy, if  any,  vary  with  the  medium  and  the  most 
advanced  thought  of  living  spiritualists. 

From  all  this  and  much  more  that  could  be  ad- 
duced, the  man  of  materialistic  science  is  fortified  in 
his  ridicule,  but  the  theosophist  has  to  conclude  that 


150  THE   OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

the  entities,  if  there  be  any  communicating,  are  not 
human  spirits,  and  that  the  explanations  are  to  be 
found  in  some  other  theories. 

Materialization  of  a  form  out  of  the  air,  independ- 
ant  of  the  medium's  physical  body,  is  a  fact.  But 
it  is  not  a  spirit.  As  was  very  well  said  by  one  of 
the  "spirits"  not  favored  by  spiritualism,  one  way 
to  produce  this  phenomenon  is  by  the  accretion  of 
electrical  and  magnetic  particles  into  one  mass  upon 
which  matter  is  aggregated  and  an  image  reflected 
out  of  the  Astral  sphere.  This  is  the  whole  of  it; 
as  much  a  fraud  as  a  collection  of  muslin  and  masks. 
How  this  is  accomplished  is  another  matter.  The 
spirits  are  not  able  to  tell,  but  an  attempt  has  been 
made  to  indicate  the  methods  and  instruments  in  for- 
mer chapters.  The  second  method  is  by  the  use  o* 
the  Astral  body  of  the  living  medium.  In  this  case 
the  Astral  form  exudes  from  the  side  of  the  med- 
ium, gradually  collects  upon  itself  particles  extracted 
from  the  air  and  the  bodies  of  the  sitters  present, 
until  at  last  it  becomes  visible.  Sometimes  it  will 
resemble  the  medium ;  at  others  it  bears  a  different 
appearance.  In  almost  every  instance  dimness  of 
light  is  requisite  because  a  high  light  would  disturb 
the  Astral  substance  in  a  violent  manner  and  render 
the  projection  difficult.  Some  so-called  materializa- 
tions are  hollow  mockeries,  as  they  are  but  flat  plates 
of  electrical  and  magnetic  substance  on  which  pict- 
ures from  the  Astral  Light  are  reflected.  These 
seem  to  be  the  faces  of  the  dead,  but  they  are  simply 
pictured  illusions. 

If  one  is  to  understand  the  psychic  phenomena 
found  in  the  history  of  "spiritualism"  it  is  necessary 
to  know  and  admit  the  following: 

I.  The  complete  heredity  of  man  astrally,  spirit- 
ually, and  psychically,  as  a  being  who  knows,  rea- 
sons, feels,  and  acts  through  the  body,  the  Astral 
body,  and  the  soul. 

II.  The  nature  of  the  mind,   its   operation,    its 


INNER   ORGANS   MUST    BE   UNDERSTOOD.  151 

powers;  the  nature  and  power  of  imagination;  the 
duration  and  effect  of  impressions.  Most  important 
in  this  is  the  persistence  of  the  slightest  impression 
as  well  as  the  deepest ;  that  every  impression  produ- 
ces a  picture  in  the  individual  aura;  and  that  by 
means  of  this  a  connection  is  established  between 
the  auras  of  friends  and  relatives  old,  new,  near, 
distant,  and  remote  in  degree:  this  would  give  a 
wide  range  of  possible  sight  to  a  clairvoyant. 

III.  The  nature,  extent,  function,  and  power  of 
man's  inner  Astral  organs  and  faculties  included  in 
the  terms  Astral  body  and  Kama.     That  these  aie 
not  hindered  from  action  by  trance  or  sleep,  but  are 
increased  in  the  medium   when   entranced;   at  the 
same  time  their  action  is  not  free,  but  governed  by 
the  mass  chord  of  thought  among  the  sitters,  or  by 
a  predominating  will,  or  by  the  presiding  devil  be- 
hind the  scenes ;  if  a  sceptical  scientific  investigator 
be  present,  his  mental  attitude  may  totally  inhibit 
the   action   of   the  medium's  powers  by  what  we 
might  call  a  freezing   process   which   no    English 
terms  will  adequately  describe. 

IV.  The  fate  of  the  real   man   after  death,    his 
state,  power,  activity  there,  and  his  relation,  if  any, 
to  those  left  behind  him  here. 

V.  That  the  intermediary  between  mind  and  body 
— the  Astral  body — is  thrown  off  at  death  and  left 
in  the  Astral  light  to  fade  away ;  and  that  the  real 
man  goes  to  Devachan. 

VI.  The  existence,  nature,  power,  and  function  of 
the  Astral  light  and  its  place  as  a  register  in  Nature. 
That  it  contains,  retains,  and  reflects  pictures  of  each 
and  every  thing  that  happened  to  anyone,  and  also 
every  thought ;  that  it  permeates  the  globe  and  the 
atmosphere  around  it;  that  the  transmission  of  vi- 
bration through  it  is  practically  instantaneous,  since 
the  rate  is  much  quicker  than  that  of  electricity  as 
now  known. 

VII.  The  existence  in  the  Astral  light  of  beings 


152  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

not  using  bodies  like  ours,  but  not  human  in  their 
nature,  having  powers,  faculties,  and  a  sort  of  con- 
sciousness of  their  own ;  these  include  the  elemental 
forces  or  nature  sprites  divided  into  many  degrees, 
and  which  have  to  do  with  every  operation  of  Nature 
and  every  motion  of  the  mind  of  man.  That  these 
elementals  act  at  stances  automatically  in  their  vari- 
ous departments,  one  class  presenting  pictures,  an- 
other producing  sounds,  and  others  depolarizing 
objects  for  the  purposes  of  apportation.  Acting 
with  them  in  this  Astral  sphere  are  the  soulless  men 
who  live  in  it.  To  these  are  to  be  ascribed  the 
phenomenon,  among  others,  of  the  "independent 
voice  ",  always  sounding  like  a  voice  in  a  barrel  just 
because  it  is  made  in  a  vacuum  which  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  an  entity  so  far  removed  from  spirit. 
The  peculiar  timbre  of  this  sort  of  voice  has  not  been 
noticed  by  the  spiritualists  as  important,  but  it  is  ex- 
tremely significant  in  the  view  of  occultism. 

VIII.  The  existence  and  operation  of  occult  laws 
and  forces  in  nature  which  may  be  used  to  produce 
phenomenal  results  on  this  plane;  that  these  laws 
and  forces  may  be  put  into  operation  by  the  subcon- 
scious man  and  by  the  elementals  either  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  and  that  many  of  these  occult  op- 
erations are  automatic  in  the  same  way  as  is   the 
freezing  of  water  under  intense  cold  or  the  melting 
of  ice  under  heat. 

IX.  That  the  Astral  body  of  the  medium,  partak- 
ing of  the  nature  of  the  Astral  substance,  may  be 
extended  from  the  physical  body,  may  act  outside  of 
the  latter,  and  may  also  extrude  at  times  any  portion 
of  itself  such  as  hand,  arm,  or  leg  and  thereby  move 
objects,  indite  letters,  produce  touches  on  the  body, 
and  so  on  ad  infinitum.     And  that  the  Astral  body 
of  any  person  may  be  made  to  feel  sensation,  which, 
being  transmitted  to  the  brain,  causes  the  person  to 
think  he  is  touched  on  the  outside  or  has  heard  a 
sound. 


WHY    MEDIUMSHIP    IS   DANGEROUS.  153 

Mediumship  is  full  of  dangers  because  the  Astral 
part  of  the  man  is  now  only  normal  in  action  when 
joined  to  the  body ;  in  distant  years  it  will  normally 
act  without  a  body  as  it  has  in  the  far  past.  To  be- 
come a  medium  means  that  you  have  to  become  dis- 
organized physiologically  and  in  the  nervous  system, 
because  through  the  latter  is  the  connection  between 
the  two  worlds.  The  moment  the  door  is  opened 
all  the  unknown  forces  rush  in,  and  as  the  grosser 
part  of  nature  is  nearest  to  us  it  is  that  part  which 
affects  us  most ;  the  lower  nature  is  also  first  affected 
and  inflamed  because  the  forces  used  are  from  that 
part  of  us.  We  are  then  at  the  mercy  of  the  vile 
thoughts  of  all  men,  and  subject  to  the  influence  of 
the  shells  in  Kama  Loka.  If  to  this  be  added  the 
taking  of  money  for  the  practice  of  mediumship,  an 
additional  danger  is  at  hand,  for  the  things  of  the 
spirit  and  those  relating  to  the  Astral  world  must 
not  be  sold.  This  is  the  great  disease  of  American 
spiritualism  which  has  debased  and  degraded  its 
whole  history;  until  it  is  eliminated  no  good  will 
come  from  the  practice;  those  who  wish  to  hear 
truth  from  the  other  world  must  devote  themselves 
to  truth  and  leave  all  considerations  of  money  out 
of  sight. 

To  attempt  to  acquire  the  use  of  the  psychic  pow- 
ers for  mere  curiosity  or  for  selfish  ends  is  also 
dangerous  for  the  same  reasons  as  in  the  case  of 
mediumship.  As  the  civilization  of  the  present  day 
is  selfish  to  the  last  degree  and  built  on  the  personal 
element,  the  rules  for  the  development  of  these  pow- 
ers in  the  right  way  have  not  been  given  out,  but 
the  Masters  of  Wisdom  have  said  that  philosophy  and 
ethics  must  first  be  learned  and  practiced  before  any 
development  of  the  other  department  is  to  be  in- 
dulged in ;  and  their  condemnation  of  the  wholesale 
development  of  mediums  is  supported  by  the  history 
of  spiritualism,  which  is  one  long  story  of  the  ruin 
of  mediums  in  every  direction. 


154  THE    OCEAN    OF    THEOSOPHY. 

Equally  improper  is  the  manner  of  the  scientific 
schools  which  without  a  thought  for  the  true  nature 
of  man  indulge  in  experiments  in  hypnotism  in 
which  the  subjects  are  injured  for  life,  put  into  dis- 
graceful attitudes,  and  made  to  do  things  for  the  sat- 
isfaction of  the  investigators  which  would  never  be 
done  by  men  and  women  in  their  normal  state.  The 
Lodge  of  the  Masters  does  not  care  for  Science  un- 
less it  aims  to  better  man's  state  morally  as  well  as 
physically,  and  no  aid  will  be  given  to  Science  until 
she  looks  at  man  and  life  from  the  moral  and  spirit- 
ual side.  For  this  reason  those  who  know  all  about 
the  psychical  world,  its  denizens  and  laws,  are  pro- 
ceeding with  a  reform  in  morals  and  philosophy 
before  any  great  attention  will  be  accorded  to  the 
strange  and  seductive  phenomena  possible  for  the 
inner  powers  of  man. 

And  at  the  present  time  the  cycle  has  almost  run 
its  course  for  this  century.  Now,  as  a  century  ago, 
the  forces  are  slackening;  for  that  reason  the  phe- 
nomena of  spiritualism  are  lessening  in  number  and 
volume ;  the  Lodge  hopes  by  the  time  the  next  tide 
begins  to  rise  that  the  West  will  have  gained  some 
right  knowledge  of  the  true  philosophy  of  Man  and 
Nature,  and  be  then  ready  to  bear  the  lifting  of  the 
veil  a  little  more.  To  help  on  the  progress  of  the 
race  in  this  direction  is  the  obje<5t  of  this  book,  and 
with  that  it  is  submitted  to  its  readers  in  every  part 
of  the  world 


JUL  6 


OCT  2  0  16 

•*'• 

MAY  21194* 


16 


Form  L-9-35jn-8,'28 


UC  SOUWRN  REGIONAL  ueSAflVFAOL^ 


000776736     1 


UNIVERSITY  of  CALIFORNIA 
AT 

L()S  ANGELES 


